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Updated: Apr 16, 2026

Measurement of Ultrafast Vibrational Coherences in Polyatomic Radical Cations with Strong-Field Adiabatic Ionization
Published on: August 6, 2018
A pulsed uniform Laval expansion coupled with single photon ionization and mass spectrometric detection for the study
Bernhard Schläppi1, Jessica H Litman, Jorge J Ferreiro
1ETH Zürich, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, CH-8093, Zürich, Switzerland. rsignorell@ethz.ch.
Abstract:
We report on a new instrument that allows for the investigation of weakly-bound molecular aggregates under equilibrium conditions (constant temperature and pressure). The aggregates are formed in a Laval nozzle and probed with time-of-flight mass spectrometry in the uniform postnozzle flow; i.e. in the equilibrium region of the flow. Aggregates over a very broad size range from the monomer to particle sizes of 10-20 nm can be generated and studied with this setup. Soft ionization of the aggregates is performed with single photons from a homemade vacuum ultraviolet laser. The mass spectrometric detection provides molecular-level information on the size and chemical composition of the aggregates. This new instrument is useful for a broad range of cluster studies that require well-defined conditions.
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