Delayed relaxation of highly excited naphthalene cations

G. Reitsma (1) , J. Hummert (1) , J. Dura (1) , V. Loriot (2) , M Vrakking (1) , F. Lépine (2) , O. Kornilov (1)

1 MBI - Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie
2 iLM - DYNAMO - iLM - Structure et dynamique multi-échelle des édifices moléculaires

The efficiency of energy transfer in ultrafast electronic relaxation of molecules depends strongly on the complex interplay between electronic and nuclear motion. In this study we use wavelength-selected XUV pulses to induce relaxation dynamics of highly excited cationic states of naphthalene. Surprisingly, the observed relaxation lifetimes increase with the cationic excitation energy. We propose that this is a manifestation of a quantum mechanical population trapping that leads to delayed relaxation of molecules in the regions with a high density of excited states.

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Chimie; Physique [physics]

G. Reitsma, J. Hummert, J. Dura, V. Loriot, M Vrakking, et al.. Delayed relaxation of highly excited naphthalene cations. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2020, 1412, pp.072044. ⟨10.1088/1742-6596/1412/7/072044⟩. ⟨hal-02905063⟩