Mapping wave packet bifurcation at a conical intersection in CH3I by attosecond XUV transient absorption spectroscopy

Abstract

Extreme ultraviolet (XUV) transient absorption spectroscopy has emerged as a sensitive tool for mapping the real-time structural and electronic evolution of molecules. Here, attosecond XUV transient absorption is used to track dynamics in the A-band of methyl iodide (CH3I). Gaseous CH3I molecules are excited to the A-band by a UV pump (277 nm, ∼20 fs) and probed by attosecond XUV pulses targeting iodine I(4d) core-to-valence transitions. Owing to the excellent temporal resolution of the technique, passage through a conical intersection is mapped through spectral signatures of nonadiabatic wave packet bifurcation observed to occur at 15 ± 4 fs following UV photoexcitation. The observed XUV signatures and time dynamics are in agreement with previous simulations [H. Wang, M. Odelius, and D. Prendergast, J. Chem. Phys. 151, 124106 (2019)]. Due to the short duration of the UV pump pulse, coherent vibrational motion in the CH3I ground state along the C–I stretch mode (538 ± 7 cm−1) launched by resonant impulsive stimulated Raman scattering and dynamics in multiphoton excited states of CH3I are also detected.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 15, 2021
Source ID
10.1063/5.0056299

Entities

People

  • Daniel Neumark
  • David Prendergast
  • Han Wang
  • Kristina F Chang
  • Sonia Marggi Poullain
  • Stephen R. Leone

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Complutense University of Madrid
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • National Science Foundation
  • United States Department of Energy
  • Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics