TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wilkin, Kyle J.
A1  - Parrish, Robert M.
A1  - Yang, Jie
A1  - Wolf, Thomas J. A.
A1  - Nunes, J. Pedro F.
A1  - Gühr, Markus
A1  - Li, Renkai
A1  - Shen, Xiaozhe
A1  - Zheng, Qiang
A1  - Wang, Xijie
A1  - Martinez, Todd J.
A1  - Centurion, Martin
T1  - Diffractive imaging of dissociation and ground-state dynamics in a complex molecule
JF  - Physical review : A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics
N2  - We have investigated the structural dynamics in photoexcited 1,2-diiodotetrafluoroethane molecules (C2F4I2) in the gas phase experimentally using ultrafast electron diffraction and theoretically using FOMO-CASCI excited-state dynamics simulations. The molecules are excited by an ultraviolet femtosecond laser pulse to a state characterized by a transition from the iodine 5p perpendicular to orbital to a mixed 5p parallel to sigma hole and CF2 center dot antibonding orbital, which results in the cleavage of one of the carbon-iodine bonds. We have observed, with sub-Angstrom resolution, the motion of the nuclear wave packet of the dissociating iodine atom followed by coherent vibrations in the electronic ground state of the C2F4I radical. The radical reaches a stable classical (nonbridged) structure in less than 200 fs.
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.100.023402
SN  - 2469-9926
SN  - 2469-9934
VL  - 100
IS  - 2
PB  - American Physical Society
CY  - College Park
ER  -