Using Attosecond Technology to Image Molecular Orbitals

Abstract

Attosecond hole dynamics: While studying the spectrum of the high harmonics produced from CO2, we discovered that multiple orbitals can ionize at the same time. This was an unexpected result suggesting that tunneling often launches attosecond dynamics. This research, including an image of the wave packet motion, was published in Nature. Imaging orbitals via tunneling: To gain additional insight into the ionization of lower orbitals, we measured the ionization probability as a function of direction. Using H_2 (because of its simplicity) we showed that the tunnel ionization rate essentially follows the orbital structure (Physical Review Letters. Then, we turned to HCl and measured the relative probability of tunnel ionizing the HOMO and the HOMO-1 orbital (Science [1]). Finally we developed an electron tomographic imaging technique.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 20, 2010
Accession Number
ADA564480

Entities

People

  • Paul Corkum

Organizations

  • National Research Council Canada

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Charged Particles
  • Department Of Defense
  • Dynamics
  • Electrons
  • Harmonics
  • Imaging Techniques
  • Infrared Pulses
  • Infrared Radiation
  • Ionization
  • Molecules
  • Photoionization
  • Probability
  • Quantum Tunneling
  • Radiation
  • Tunneling
  • Tunnels
  • Wave Packets

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Quantum Chemistry

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space