Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(13), 2022

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33032-2

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Triple ionization and fragmentation of benzene trimers following ultrafast intermolecular Coulombic decay

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractIntermolecular interactions involving aromatic rings are ubiquitous in biochemistry and they govern the properties of many organic materials. Nevertheless, our understanding of the structures and dynamics of aromatic clusters remains incomplete, in particular for systems beyond the dimers, despite their high presence in many macromolecular systems such as DNA and proteins. Here, we study the fragmentation dynamics of benzene trimer that represents a prototype of higher-order aromatic clusters. The trimers are initially ionized by electron-collision with the creation of a deep-lying carbon 2s−1 state or one outer-valence and one inner-valence vacancies at two separate molecules. The system can thus relax via ultrafast intermolecular decay mechanisms, leading to the formation of C${}_{6}{{{{{{{{{\rm{H}}}}}}}}}_{6}}^{+}⋅$ 6 H 6 + ⋅ C${}_{6}{{{{{{{{{\rm{H}}}}}}}}}_{6}}^{+}⋅$ 6 H 6 + ⋅ C${}_{6}{{{{{{{{{\rm{H}}}}}}}}}_{6}}^{+}$ 6 H 6 + trications and followed by a concerted three-body Coulomb explosion. Triple-coincidence ion momentum spectroscopy, accompanied by ab-initio calculations and further supported by strong-field laser experiments, allows us to elucidate the details on the fragmentation dynamics of benzene trimers.