Resonant Multiphoton Ionization: Photoelectron Angular Distribution, a Probe of Atomic and Molecular Properties

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This is a combined theoretical and experimental project in Physical Chemistry to study and describe the excited electronic states of atoms and molecules. In the experimental part, polarized light will be used to first excite and then ionize atoms and the molecules. The angular and energy distributions of the photoelectrons will be analyzed to determine the degree of electron correlation in the initially excited electronic state(s) of atoms. For atoms, the theoretical thrust of this research is to adequately describe this correlation. Once atoms are adequately described, the phenomenological theory of the angular and energy distributions of the photoelectrons will be extended to molecules and experimentally tested in an investigation of the angular and energy distributions of photoelectrons emitted from molecules. The goal of this research is to better understand the dynamics of the interactions between an electron and the molecular core to which it is bound, hence to better understand chemical bonding.