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Updated: Aug 11, 2025

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Velocity-map imaging of photoelectron circular dichroism in non-volatile molecules using a laser-based desorption
Chris Sparling1, Stuart W Crane1, Lewis Ireland1
1Institute of Photonics & Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK. d.townsend@hw.ac.uk.
Abstract:
We present an initial demonstration of a velocity-map imaging (VMI) experiment using a back-irradiation laser-based desorption source directly integrated into the electrode assembly. This has the potential to greatly expand the utility of the popular VMI approach by permitting its use with high density plumes of non-volatile molecular samples. Photoelectron circular dichroism measurements on the phenylalanine molecule using 400 nm multiphoton ionization are used to illustrate this novel method, revealing forward-backward emission asymmetries on the order of 7%.

