Attachment of low energy electrons to vibrationally excited molecules

The project is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the EU Marie Curie Individual Fellowship HPMF-CT-1999-00080.

Outline of current efforts

Currently we study the mechanisms of the dissociative attachment of electrons in weakly bound highly excited Na**(nl) Rydberg states to Na₂ molecules, whereby the vibration of the molecules is optically controlled by means of STIRAP . An essential tool which is expected to give insight into the mechanisms is our recently developed field-free ion imaging system which allows the measurement of product ion kinetic energies without ionising the weakly bound Rydberg electrons by electric fields. We further intend to attempt a control of the Na**(nl) + Na₂ triatomic collision complex in order to steer it through an ionisation channel chosen from several energetically possible ones.

Contents

1. State of art in the research field

2. Electron-molecule collisions

2.1 Attachment of free electrons

2.2 Attachement of weakly bound Rydberg electrons - the dissociative charge transfer

3. Ion imaging

3.1 Principle of the field-free ion imaging

3.2 Design and test using photodissociation of Na₂(v")

4. Outlook - control of the Na₃** collision complex

Publications on the topic

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