Optically-Enhanced Attachment of Electronically-Excited Molecules and Photofragments

Loucas Christophorou博士得到了实验物理化学计划的资助，用于研究光学增强电子与电子激发分子结合的机制。本研究对光激活电子开关器件的潜在设计具有重要的指导意义。克里斯托霍鲁博士与他在橡树岭国家实验室的同事们合作，证明了由激光照射间接产生的某些分子的电子激发态，可以拥有比相应的基电子态大几个数量级的电子附着截面。有了这笔赠款，克里斯托霍鲁博士将进行研究，旨在为这一观察建立准确的机制。大部分研究将对硫酚进行，这是初步调查的主题；但是，研究也将扩展到对激光诱导二硫化碳光解产生的光碎片的研究。

Dr. Loucas Christophorou is supported by a grant from The Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to study the mechanism for optically enhanced electron attachment to electronically excited molecules. This research has important implications in the potential design of light activated electronic switching devices. Dr. Christophorou has shown, in collaboration with his colleagues at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, that electronically excited states of certain molecules, produced indirectly by laser irradiation, can possess orders of magnitude larger electron attachment cross sections than corresponding ground electronic states. With this grant Dr. Christophorou will perform research directed at establishing the precise mechanism for this observation. Most of the research will be carried out on thiophenol which has been the subject of the preliminary investigations; however, the research will also be extended to studies of photofragments produced by the laser induced photodecomposition of carbon disulfide.