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，研究光学增强电子附着到电子激发分子的机制。该研究对光激活电子开关器件的潜在设计具有重要意义。Christophorou博士与橡树岭国家实验室的同事合作，证明了某些分子的电子激发态，通过激光照射间接产生，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。有了这笔拨款，Christophorou博士将进行旨在建立这一观察的精确机制的研究。大部分研究将对硫酚进行，这是初步调查的主题；然而，该研究还将扩展到激光诱导二硫化碳光分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.