Inter-atomic correlated decay processes in doped helium nanodroplets – probing heterogeneous nanosystems with EUV radiation

• Applicant: Dr. Ltaief Ben Ltaief
• Subject Area: Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: from 2018 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 409086560

• Final Report Year: 2022

Final Report Abstract

This project was scientifically very productive, and the cost-benefit ratio was excellent. This was mainly due to the efficient way of carrying out experiments in a concerted effort with a team of experienced researchers using proven techniques. In addition, the particular system of pure and doped He nanodroplets had not been studied much in the extreme-ultraviolet regime and not at all using electron-ion coincidence detection aside from the host and the PI's own preliminary work. It turned out that He nanodroplets feature very interesting and unusual electronic and nuclear dynamics when being electronically excited or ionized. Many fundamental secondary processes like ICD, ETMD, elastic and inelastic electron scattering, droplet-induced electron-ion recombination, electronic relaxation were investigated. This research complies with the current trend of shifting focus on ICD and related phenomena in condensed phase systems rather than isolated small molecules. Thus, nearly all of the goals as well as additional achievements were reached, except for the study of pump-probe dynamics of dopants in He nanodroplets by combining optical laser pulses to EUV pulses from Elettra synchrotron radiation. Some of these experiments will be carried out in near future experiments by the PI at ELI-beamlines.

Publications

• Charge Exchange Dominates Long-Range Interatomic Coulombic Decay of Excited Metal-Doped Helium Nanodroplets. J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 10, 6904-6909
  L. Ben Ltaief, M. Shcherbinin, S. Mandal, S. R. Krishnan, A. C. LaForge, R. Richter, S. Turchini, N. Zema, T. Pfeifer, E. Fasshauer, N. Sisourat and M. Mudrich
  
• Direct inner-shell photoionization of Xe atoms embedded in helium nanodroplets. J. Phys. B: At., Mol. Opt. Phys. 53, 20, 204001
  L. Ben Ltaief, M. Shcherbinin, S. Mandal, S. Krishnan, R. Richter, T. Pfeifer, and M. Mudrich.
  
• Electron transfer mediated decay of alkali dimers attached to He nanodroplets. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 8557-8564
  L. Ben Ltaief, M. Shcherbinin, S. Mandal, S. R. Krishnan, R. Richter, T. Pfeifer, M. Bauer, A. Ghosh, M. Mudrich, K. Gokhberg, and A. C. LaForge
  
• A multipurpose end-station for atomic, molecular and optical sciences and coherent diffractive imaging at ELI beamlines. Eur Phys J Spec Top. 1-12
  E. Klimešová, O. Kulyk, Z. Hoque, A.H. Roos, K.P. Khakurel, M. Rebarz, M. Jurkovič, M. Albrecht, O. Finke, R. Lera, O. Hort, M. Dong-Du, N. Jaroslav Nejdl, S. Martin, R.B. Fink, L. Ben Ltaief et al.
  
• Fourfold Differential Photoelectron Circular Dichroism. Phys. Rev. Lett. 127(10), 103201
  K. Fehre, N. M. Novikovskiy, S. Grundmann, G. Kastirke, S. Eckart, F. Trinter, J. Rist, A. Hartung, D. Trabert, C. Janke, M. Pitzer, S. Zeller, F. Wiegandt, M. Weller, M. Kircher, M. Hofmann, L. Ph. H. Schmidt, A. Knie, A. Hans, L. Ben Ltaief, A. Ehresmann, R. Berger, H. Fukuzawa, K. Ueda, H. Schmidt-Böcking, J. B. Williams, T. Jahnke, R. Dörner, M. S. Schöffler and Ph. V. Demekhin
  
• Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Coronene Molecules Embedded in Helium Nanodroplets. J. Low. Temp. Phys. 202(5), 444-455
  L. Ben Ltaief, M. Shcherbinin, S. Mandal, S. R. Krishnan, R. Richter, S. Turchini, N. Zema, M. Mudrich
  
• Single-shot electron imaging of dopant-induced nanoplasmas. New J. Phys. 23(5), 053011
  C. Medina, D. Schomas, N. Rendler, M. Debatin, D. Uhl, A. Ngai, L. Ben Ltaief et al.
  
• Fragmentation dynamics of doubly charged camphor molecule following C 1s Auger decay. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 24, 2944
  S. Sen, S. Mandal, A. Sen, R. Gopal, L. Ben Ltaief, S. Turchini, D. Catone, N. Zema, M. Coreno, R. Richter, M. Mudrich, S. R. Krishnan and V. Sharma