Molecular-bond breaking induced by interatomic decay processes

Article

Molecular-bond breaking induced by interatomic decay processes

Chiang, Y.-C.; Engin, S.; Bao, P.; Otto, F.; Kolorenč, P.; Votavová, P.; Miteva, T.; Gao, J.; Sisourat, N.

Phys. Rev. A 100(5), 052701 (2019)

Abstract

Selective bond breaking in a molecule with the use of photons opens the way to control chemical reactions. We demonstrate here that dissociation of a molecule can be efficiently achieved by first photoexciting a neighboring atom or molecule. On the example of the giant He-H-2 dimer, we show that simultaneous ionization and excitation of the helium atom induces H-2 dissociation with a high probability. The excited He+ ion transfers its excess energy via interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) or electron transfer mediated decay (ETMD) to H-2 which is then singly or doubly ionized, respectively. In both cases, the molecular ion dissociates effectively within a few tens of femtoseconds. Molecular-bond breaking induced by ICD and ETMD are expected to be general phenomena, which provide alternatives to standard photochemistry.

Institute authors

Kolorenč, Přemysl

Supported by

GACR 17-10866S — Properties of autoionizing states in atoms, molecules and clusters

BibTeX

@article{UTF804,
  author        = {Chiang, Y.-C. and Engin, S. and Bao, P. and Otto, F. and Kolorenč, P. and Votavová, P. and Miteva, T. and Gao, J. and Sisourat, N.},
  title         = {{Molecular-bond breaking induced by interatomic decay processes}},
  journal       = {Phys. Rev. A},
  volume        = {100},
  number        = {5},
  pages         = {052701},
  year          = {2019},
  doi           = {10.1103/PhysRevA.100.052701},
}