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Anion photoelectron imaging1 is a variant on photoelectron spectroscopy and represents a powerful probe of atomic/molecular electronic structure and the interactions between electrons and neutral species. The information obtained is essential in developing the understanding of bound and metastable (electron-molecule scattering resonances) negative ion states, doorway states for chemical reduction, dissociative attachment processes and ion-molecule interactions. Furthermore, the results provide vital tests of high level ab initio theoretical methods, particularly those designed to deal with highly correlated systems and/or non-stationary states.
The technique combines ion production, mass spectrometry and charged particle imaging2,3,4 to sensitively probe electronic (and for small molecules, vibrational) structure. Working with anionic species allows good mass selectivity via time of flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS). Visible/near ultraviolet (UV) photons are sufficiently energetic to remove the excess electron, allowing the use of table top laser sources. An additional benefit of the use of anions is the ability to photoexcite low-lying, unstable anionic states which represent energy regimes under which the electrons and neutral atoms/molecules strongly interact. The use of velocity mapped imaging5 (VMI) affords uniform detection efficiency, even at low electron kinetic energies, monitors all ejected photoelectrons and simultaneously reveals the magnitude and direction of their velocities.
The experimental results are photoelectron images which contain photoelectron spectra (details of parent anion internal energy distributions and the energies of daughter neutral internal states) and photoelectron angular distributions (related to the electron orbital prior to the detachment). A particularly interesting application of the technique is found in fs time-resolved studies. An initial ultrafast laser pulse (pump) excites to a dissociative anion electronic state, and a second temporally delayed ultrafast pulse (probe) then detaches electrons from the excited anion. The control of the pump-probe time difference follows the evolution of energy states of the system and the changing nature of the orbitals of the system on the timescale of the atomic motion. Examples include the photodissociation of I2− and other interhalogen species6,7,8,9, the fragmentation and/or electron accommodation in I−·uracil10,11,12,13, I−·thymine13,14, I−·adenine15, I−·nitromethane16,17 and I−·acetonitrile17 cluster anions and the revelation of the hitherto unexpectedly long timescale for the production of Cu− atomic anions after the photoexcitation of CuO2−18.
Figure 1 shows the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) anion photoelectron imaging spectrometer19. The instrument consists of three differentially pumped regions. Ions are produced in the source chamber which operates at a pressure of 10−5 Torr and contains a discharge ion source20, and electrostatic ion extraction plate. Ions are separated by mass in a Wiley-McLaren TOF-MS21 (the pressure in the TOF-Tube is 10−8 Torr). Ion detection and probing takes place in the detection region (pressure of 10−9 Torr) which contains a VMI lens5 and a charged particle detector. The main components of the instrument are schematically illustrated in Figure 1b where the shaded region represents all the elements contained within the vacuum system. Gas is introduced through the pulsed nozzle into the discharge. To offset the high inlet pressure, the source chamber is maintained under vacuum using an oil-based diffusion pump. The discharge region is illustrated in more detail in Figure 2a. A high potential difference is applied between the electrodes, which are insulated from the face of the nozzle by a series of Teflon spacers. In fact, the Teflon acts as the source of fluorine atoms for the results shown later.
The discharge produces a mixture of anions, cations and neutral species. The ion extraction plate, ion acceleration stack, potential switch and microchannel plate (MCP) detector (Figure 1b) form the 2 m long Wiley McLaren TOF-MS. Ions are extracted by the application of a (negative) voltage pulse to the ion extraction plate and then all ions are accelerated to the same kinetic energy. Variation of the extraction pulse magnitude focuses the arrival time in the VMI lens while the einzel lens reduces the spatial cross section of the ion beam. Anions are re-referenced to ground using a potential switch22, the timing of which acts as a mass discriminator. Anion selection is achieved by synchronizing the arrival of a visible/near uv photon pulse with the arrival time of the anion in the VMI lens. The ion separation and detection regions use oil free turbopumps to protect the imaging detector.
Anions and photons interact to produce photoelectrons throughout the spatial volume of the Steinmetz solid, representing the overlap between the ion and laser beams. The VMI lens (Figure 2b) consists of three open electrodes, the purpose of which is to ensure that all photoelectrons reach the detector and that the momentum space distribution of the photoelectrons is maintained. To achieve this, different voltages are applied to the extractor and repeller such that, regardless of the spatial point of origin, electrons with the same initial velocity vector are detected at the same point on the detector. The detector consists of a set of chevron-matched MCPs which act as electron multipliers. Each channel has a diameter on the order of a few microns, localizing the gain and preserving the initial impact position. A phosphor screen behind the MCPs indicates the position via the amplified electron pulse as a flash of light which is recorded using a charge coupled device (CCD) camera.
The timing and duration of the various voltage pulses required are controlled using a pair of digital delay generators (DDG, Figure 3). The whole experiment is repeated on a shot by shot basis with a repetition rate of 10 Hz. For each shot, several ions and photons interact producing a few detection events per camera frame. Several thousand frames are accumulated into an image. The image center represents the momentum space origin and hence the distance from the center (r) is proportional to the speed of an electron. Angle θ, (relative to the photon polarization direction) represents the direction of an electron's velocity. An image contains the distribution of detection event densities. Thus, it can also be viewed as representing the probability density for detection (at a given point) of an electron. Invoking the Born interpretation of the wave function (ψ) an image represents |ψ|2 for the photoelectron23.
The 3D electron probability density is cylindrically symmetric about the polarization of the electric vector (εp) of the radiation with consequent scrambling of information. Reconstruction of the original distribution is achieved mathematically24,25,26,27. The radial distribution (of electrons) in the reconstruction is the momentum (velocity) domain photoelectron spectrum which is converted into the energy domain via application of the appropriate Jacobian transformation.
The anion photoelectron imaging spectrometer (Figure 1) used in these experiments is a custom-built instrument28. The settings in Table 1 and Table 2 for the protocol are specific to this instrument for the production of F− and imaging of its photoelectron distribution. Several similar versions of the design are used in various research laboratories6,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42, but no two instruments are exactly alike. Additionally, instrument settings are strongly interdependent and highly sensitive to small changes in conditions and instrument dimensions.