Time-resolved dissociative electron attachment

化学变化可以由分子与原子、分子、热、光或电子的反应驱动。在过去的一个世纪里，所有这些类型的反应都得到了广泛的研究。特别是，他们在隔离(气相)条件下的研究使人们能够揭示化学动力学的原子水平的细节。最近，随着20世纪80年代S短脉冲激光的出现，所有这些孤立的反应都是在复杂分子中原子运动的时间尺度上进行研究的，值得注意的是电子驱动的反应除外。最重要的电子驱动的化学反应之一是解离电子附着，在这个过程中一个电子分解一个分子，留下一个中性的带负电荷的碎片。目前的提议概述了两种实验方法，这两种方法将首次实现对解离电子附着性的直接测量。这些结果将为研究广泛的此类反应提供一个新的平台，并将研究几个对大气重要的反应，以证明这些方法的适用性。这些结果将为了解这些电子驱动反应的基本性质提供有价值的见解。这种基本的洞察力是至关重要的，因为除了最小的分子系统外，解离动力学的计算模型仍然超出了当前的最先进水平。从更广泛的角度来看，了解电子驱动的化学最终将能够控制和合理设计这种过程，这在技术上是可以利用的。例如，等离子体反应被用于分子涂层、蚀刻和半导体技术。

Chemical changes can be driven by the reaction of molecules with atoms, molecules, heat, light or electrons. All of these types of reactions have been studied extensively over the past century. In particular, their study under isolated (gas-phase) conditions enables the atomic-level details of the chemical dynamics to be uncovered. More recently, with the advent of short pulsed lasers in the 1980's, all of these isolated reactions have been studied at the timescales of the atomic motion in complex molecules, with the notable exception of electron driven reactions. One of the most important electron driven chemical reactions is that of dissociative electron attachment in which an electron breaks apart a molecule leaving a neutral and negatively charged fragment. The current proposal outlines two experimental methods that will enable the direct measurement of dissociative electron attachment for the first time. The outcomes will provide a new platform to study a wide range of such reactions and a few atmospherically important reactions will be studied to demonstrate the applicability of the methods. The outcomes will provide valuable insight into the fundamental nature of these electron driven reactions. This fundamental insight is crucial because the computational modelling of dissociative dynamics is still beyond the current state-of-the-art except for the smallest molecular systems. From a broader perspective, understanding electron driven chemistry will ultimately enable control and rational design of such processes, which is technologically exploitable. For example, plasma-reactions are employed in molecular coating, etching, and semi-conductor technologies.