Tunable VUV photochemistry using vacuum ultraviolet free electron laser combined with H-atom Rydberg tagging time-of-flight spectroscopy

Yao Chang; Shengrui Yu; Qinming Li; Yong Yu; Heilong Wang; Shu Su; Zhichao Chen; Li Che; Xingan Wang; Weiqing Zhang; Dongxu Dai; Guorong Wu; Kaijun Yuan; Xueming Yang

doi:10.1063/1.5017757

Tunable VUV photochemistry using vacuum ultraviolet free electron laser combined with H-atom Rydberg tagging time-of-flight spectroscopy

Rev Sci Instrum. 2018 Jun;89(6):063113. doi: 10.1063/1.5017757.

Authors

Yao Chang¹, Shengrui Yu², Qinming Li¹, Yong Yu¹, Heilong Wang¹, Shu Su¹, Zhichao Chen¹, Li Che³, Xingan Wang⁴, Weiqing Zhang¹, Dongxu Dai¹, Guorong Wu¹, Kaijun Yuan¹, Xueming Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023, People's Republic of China.
² Hangzhou Institute of Advanced Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, 1108 Gengwen Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311231, People's Republic of China.
³ College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, 1 Linghai Road, Dalian, Liaoning 116026, People's Republic of China.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Department of Chemical Physics, Center for Advanced Chemical Physics (iChEM, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), University of Science and Technology of China, Jinzhai Road 96, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 29960519
DOI: 10.1063/1.5017757

Abstract

In this article, we describe an experimental setup for studying tunable vacuum ultraviolet photochemistry using the H-atom Rydberg tagging time-of-flight technique. In this apparatus, two vacuum ultraviolet laser beams were used: one is generated by using a nonlinear four-wave mixing scheme in a Kr gas cell and fixed at 121.6 nm wavelength to probe the H-atom product through the Lyman α transition and the other beam, produced by a seeded free electron laser facility, can be continuously tunable for photodissociating molecules in the wavelength range of 50-150 nm with extremely high brightness. Preliminary results on the H₂O photodissociation in the 4d (000) Rydberg state are reported here. These results suggest that the experimental setup is a powerful tool for investigating photodissociation dynamics in the vacuum ultraviolet region for molecules involving H-atom elimination processes.