Structural Dynamics (Jul 2016)

Charge transfer in dissociating iodomethane and fluoromethane molecules ionized by intense femtosecond X-ray pulses

  • Rebecca Boll,
  • Benjamin Erk,
  • Ryan Coffee,
  • Sebastian Trippel,
  • Thomas Kierspel,
  • Cédric Bomme,
  • John D. Bozek,
  • Mitchell Burkett,
  • Sebastian Carron,
  • Ken R. Ferguson,
  • Lutz Foucar,
  • Jochen Küpper,
  • Tatiana Marchenko,
  • Catalin Miron,
  • Minna Patanen,
  • Timur Osipov,
  • Sebastian Schorb,
  • Marc Simon,
  • Michelle Swiggers,
  • Simone Techert,
  • Kiyoshi Ueda,
  • Christoph Bostedt,
  • Daniel Rolles,
  • Artem Rudenko

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4944344
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 4
pp. 043207 – 043207-15

Abstract

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Ultrafast electron transfer in dissociating iodomethane and fluoromethane molecules was studied at the Linac Coherent Light Source free-electron laser using an ultraviolet-pump, X-ray-probe scheme. The results for both molecules are discussed with respect to the nature of their UV excitation and different chemical properties. Signatures of long-distance intramolecular charge transfer are observed for both species, and a quantitative analysis of its distance dependence in iodomethane is carried out for charge states up to I21+. The reconstructed critical distances for electron transfer are in good agreement with a classical over-the-barrier model and with an earlier experiment employing a near-infrared pump pulse.