Probing the structure and dynamics of molecular complexes using rotational wavepackets

Gediminas Galinis (1) , Cephise Cacho (2) , Richard T. Chapman (2) , Andrew M. Ellis (1) , Marius Lewerenz (3) , L.G. Mendoza Luna (1) , Russell S. Minns (4) , M. Mladenovic (3) , A. Rouzee (5) , E. Springate (2) , I. C. Edmond Turcu (2) , Mark Watkins (1) , Klaus von Haeften (1)

1 University of Leicester
2 RAL - STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
3 MSME - Laboratoire de Modélisation et Simulation Multi Echelle
4 University of Southampton
5 MBI - Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie

Rotational wave packets of the weakly bound C2H2-He complex have been created using impulsive alignment. The coherent rotational dynamics were monitored for 600 ps enabling extraction of a frequency spectrum showing multiple rotational energy levels up to J ¼ 4. spectrum has been combined with ab initio calculations to show that the complex has a highly delocalized structure and is bound only by ca. 7 cm−1. The experiments demonstrate how highly featured rotational spectra can be obtained from an extremely cold environment where only the lowest rotational energy states are initially populated.

Domaines: Chimie théorique et/ou physique

Gediminas Galinis, Cephise Cacho, Richard T. Chapman, Andrew M. Ellis, Marius Lewerenz, et al.. Probing the structure and dynamics of molecular complexes using rotational wavepackets. Physical Review Letters, 2014, 113, pp.043004. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.043004⟩. ⟨hal-01078673⟩