Coauthored Publications with: Yang

Conference Paper

Palazzetti, F, Lombardi A, Nakamura M, Yang S-J, Kasai T, Lin K-C, Tsai P-Y, Che D-C.  2016.  Rotational state-selection and alignment of chiral molecules by electrostatic hexapoles. AIP Conference Proceedings. 1790 Abstract

Electrostatic hexapoles are revealed as a powerful tool in the rotational state-selection and alignment of molecules to be utilized in beam experiments on collisional and photoinitiated processes. In the paper, we report results on the application of the hexapolar technique on the recently studied chiral molecules propylene oxide, 2-butanol and 2-bromobutane, to be investigated in selective photodissociation and enantiomeric discrimination. © 2016 Author(s).

Palazzetti, F, Lombardi A, Yang S-J, Nakamura M, Kasai T, Lin K-C, Che D-C, Tsai P-Y.  2016.  Stereodirectional photodynamics: Experimental and theoretical perspectives. AIP Conference Proceedings. 1790 Abstract

Hexapole oriented 2-bromobutane is photodissociated and detected by a slice-ion-imaging technique at 234 nm. The laser wavelength corresponds to the C - Br bond breaking with emission of a Br atom fragment in two accessible fine-structure states: the ground state Br (2P3/2) and the excited state Br (2P1/2), both observable separately by resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI). Orientation is evaluated by time-of-flight measurements combined with slice-ion-imaging. © 2016 Author(s).

Lin, K-C, Nakamura M, Yang, S. J, Kasai T, Che D-C, Lombardi A, Palazzetti F, Aquilanti V.  2017.  Angular distribution of bromine atomic photofragment in oriented 2-bromobutane via hexapole state selector. AIP Conference Proceedings. 1906 Abstract

In this work, an asymmetric top molecule 2-bromobutane has been successfully oriented by using hexapole state selector combined with orientation field, followed by detection of the bromine atomic photofragment distribution in the photolysis. The photofragment is produced in both the ground Br (2P3/2) and the excited Br (2P1/2) electronic states and both channels are studied by the slice imaging technique, revealing new features in the stereodynamic vectorial properties with respect to previous investigations on non-oriented molecules. © 2017 Author(s).

Journal Article

Nakamura, M, Yang, S. J, Lin K-C, Kasai T, Che D-C, Lombardi A, Palazzetti F, Aquilanti V.  2017.  Stereodirectional images of molecules oriented by a variable-voltage hexapolar field: Fragmentation channels of 2-bromobutane electronically excited at two photolysis wavelengths. Journal of Chemical Physics. 147, Number 1 AbstractWebsite

The asymmetric-top molecule 2-bromobutane is oriented by means of a hexapole state selector; the angular distribution of the bromine atom photofragment, for the two fine-structure components, is acquired by velocity-map ion imaging. The molecular beam, spatially oriented along the time-of-flight axis, is intersected with a linearly polarized laser, whose polarization is tilted by 45° with respect to the detector surface. To obtain the mixing ratio of the perpendicular and parallel transitions, the fragment ion images and angular distributions can be appropriately simulated to give insight on the population mechanism of the specific electronic state involved at each selected excitation wavelength. The photofragment images obtained at 238.6 nm yielded an asymmetry factor β1 of 0.67, indicative of the extent of molecular orientation, and an anisotropy parameter β2 of 1.03, which is a signature of a prevailing parallel transition along the C-Br axis. When the photolysis wavelength is tuned to 254.1 nm, the corresponding angular distribution is less asymmetric (β1 = 0.24) and the obtained small value β2 = 0.12 is a characteristic of a predominantly perpendicular transition. The photofragment angular distributions are also affected by hexapole voltage, especially regarding the asymmetry factor, and this aspect provides information on the effect of molecular orientation. © 2017 Author(s).

Fan, H, Tsai P-Y, Lin K-C, Lin C-W, Yan C-Y, Yang S-W, Chang AHH.  2012.  Molecular elimination of Br2 in photodissociation of CH 2BrC(O)Br at 248 nm using cavity ring-down absorption spectroscopy. Journal of Chemical Physics. 137, Number 21 AbstractWebsite

The primary elimination channel of bromine molecule in one-photon dissociation of CH2BrC(O)Br at 248 nm is investigated using cavity ring-down absorption spectroscopy. By means of spectral simulation, the ratio of nascent vibrational population in v 0, 1, and 2 levels is evaluated to be 1:(0.5 ± 0.1):(0.2 ± 0.1), corresponding to a Boltzmann vibrational temperature of 581 ± 45 K. The quantum yield of the ground state Br2 elimination reaction is determined to be 0.24 ± 0.08. With the aid of ab initio potential energy calculations, the obtained Br2 fragments are anticipated to dissociate on the electronic ground state, yielding vibrationally hot Br2 products. The temperature-dependence measurements support the proposed pathway via internal conversion. For comparison, the Br2 yields are obtained analogously from CH3CHBrC(O)Br and (CH3)2CBrC(O)Br to be 0.03 and 0.06, respectively. The trend of Br2 yields among the three compounds is consistent with the branching ratio evaluation by Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus method. However, the latter result for each molecule is smaller by an order of magnitude than the yield findings. A non-statistical pathway so-called roaming process might be an alternative to the Br2 production, and its contribution might account for the underestimate of the branching ratio calculations. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Nakamura, M, Yang S-J, Tsai P-Y, Kasai T, Lin K-C, Che D-C, Lombardi A, Palazzetti F, Aquilanti V.  2016.  Hexapole-Oriented Asymmetric-Top Molecules and Their Stereodirectional Photodissociation Dynamics. Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 120:5389-5398., Number 27 AbstractWebsite

Molecular orientation is a fundamental requisite in the study of stereodirected dynamics of collisional and photoinitiated processes. In this past decade, variable hexapolar electric filters have been developed and employed for the rotational-state selection and the alignment of molecules of increasing complexity, for which the main difficulties are their mass, their low symmetry, and the very dense rotational manifold. In this work, for the first time, a complex molecule such as 2-bromobutane, an asymmetric top containing a heavy atom (the bromine), was successfully oriented by a weak homogeneous field placed downstream from the hexapolar filter. Efficiency of the orientation was characterized experimentally, by combining time-of-flight measurements and a slice-ion-imaging detection technique. The application is described to the photodissociation dynamics of the oriented 2-bromobutane, which was carried out at a laser wavelength of 234 nm, corresponding to the breaking of the C-Br bond. The Br photofragment is produced in both the ground Br (2P3/2) and the excited Br (2P1/2) electronic states, and both channels are studied by the slice imaging technique, revealing new features in the velocity and angular distributions with respect to previous investigations on nonoriented molecules. © 2016 American Chemical Society.