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Updated: May 1, 2026

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
Published on: August 18, 2017
Communication: Determining the structure of the N₂Ar van der Waals complex with laser-based channel-selected Coulomb
Chengyin Wu1, Cong Wu1, Di Song2
1State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
We experimentally reconstructed the structure of the N2Ar van der Waals complex with the technique of laser-based channel-selected Coulomb explosion imaging. The internuclear distance between the N2 center of mass and the Ar atom, i.e., the length of the van der Waals bond, was determined to be 3.88 Å from the two-body explosion channels. The angle between the van der Waals bond and the N2 principal axis was determined to be 90° from the three-body explosion channels. The reconstructed structure was contrasted with our high level ab initio calculations. The agreement demonstrated the potential application of laser-based Coulomb explosion in imaging transient molecular structure, particularly for floppy van der Waals complexes, whose structures remain difficult to be determined by conventional spectroscopic methods.
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