Fragmentation dynamics of doubly charged camphor molecule following C 1s Auger decay

Abstract

Investigation of the fragmentation of doubly charged camphor molecule following C 1s Auger decay experimentally by VMI-PEPIPICO, supplemented with MD simulations.

Electron and ion spectroscopy of camphor doped helium nanodroplets in the extreme UV and soft x-ray regime

“…This phenomenon has been previously reported for various atomic and molecular species [43,45,46,48,55]. Although peaks corresponding to ionic fragments of camphor, as observed in gas phase studies [35,36,65], are present, they are not as prominent as the molecular ion itself. Penning electron may take away excess energy of the ionisation process resulting in limited energy being deposited in the molecular ion, leading to less vigorous fragmentation [71].…”

“…These primary findings significantly contribute to our understanding of the ionisation and fragmentation processes in camphor and camphor-doped helium nanodroplets. Especially, the presence of unique, droplet specific dissociation channel, where further fragmentation following the release of −CO is suppressed, is rather intriguing as −CO is previously observed to carry a signature of the internal energy deposited in the transient doubly charged molecular ion following C 1s Auger decay [36]. The implications of these findings extend to broader studies in ionisation dynamics and offer valuable insights into complex systems.…”

“…We matched it with the known geometry of (1S)-(−)-Camphor from earlier studies [35,65,67] to validate our geometry optimisation. The details of this process have been discussed in our recent work [36]. The computed molecular orbital energy are hence obtained from the computation.…”

“…Camphor is a recognised prototype for dichroism studies such as photoelectron dichroism of both the core and the valence electron, using synchrotron radiation [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] and femtosecond laser [24][25][26][27]. The dynamics of photoexcitation [28][29][30][31] and fragmentation [32][33][34][35][36] of camphor were also previously explored. However, the photoionisation and fragmentation mechanisms of camphor in a medium have not yet been explored.…”

“…With the precedent, we investigated the ionisation and fragmentation dynamics of molecular camphor and camphordoped helium nanodroplet post-interaction with extreme UV and soft x-ray synchrotron radiation. Our experimental approach employs the Velocity Map Imaging-PhotoElectron PhotoIon Coincidence (VMI-PEPICO) technique [36,45], enabling us to capture the ion mass spectra, the ion mass-correlated electron kinetic energy spectra, and the ion kinetic energy spectra of both the doped droplet and the effusive background. Experimental parameters such as photon energy, doping chamber pressure, and droplet size were varied, and the corresponding spectra were recorded and analysed.…”