Structure and Dynamics of Small Molecules and Anions:
Negative-ion photoelectron spectroscopybyElisa M. Miller
B.A., Boston University, 2005

A thesis submitted to the
Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Colorado in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy
Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryThis thesis entitled:
Structure and Dynamics of Small Molecules and Anions:
Negative-ion photoelectron spectroscopy
written by Elisa M. Miller
has been approved for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry by_______________________________________
W. Carl Lineberger_______________________________________
Veronica M. Bierbaum

Date: ________________
The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both thecontent and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above
mentioned discipline.

iii
Miller, Elisa M. (Ph.D. Physical Chemistry)
Structure and Dynamics of Small Molecules and Anions: Negative-ion photoelectron
spectroscopy
Thesis directed by Professor W. Carl Lineberger

Photoelectron spectroscopy of gas-phase anions is utilized to study the spectroscopic anddynamic properties of anions and anionic clusters. The photoelectron spectrum of IBr⁻(X̃2+)leads to more accurate measurements of a number of molecular properties, such as the electron
affinity of IBr (EA(IBr) = 2.512±0.003 eV), equilibrium geometry of the anion ground state(Re(I–Br⁻) = 3.01±0.01 Å), and dissociation energy of the anion ground state (D0(I–Br⁻) =0.966±0.003 eV). The photoelectron spectrum of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 1 – 3, demonstrates minimal
perturbation to the IBr⁻ electronic structure, and the EAs for solvated IBr(CO2)n, n = 1 – 3, aredetermined. The presence of the CO2 influences the dissociation dynamics along two excitedstates of IBr⁻ by enabling nonadiabatic transitions. Time-resolved photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻and IBr⁻(CO2) are taken to measure these dissociation dynamics, which when combined withtheory leads to a mechanism. The solvation energy of CO2 and the ability of CO2 to temporarily
acquire partial charge as it bends facilitate the charge transfer in the two photoexcitation/
photodissociation channels studied.
Photoelectron spectroscopy of ICN⁻ (X̃2+) probes transitions to the ground state and first
five excited states of neutral ICN. The first three excited states and a conical intersection region
between the 30+ and 11 states are spectroscopically resolved. Through thermochemical cycles

iv
involving narrow transitions to excited states, the EA(ICN) is found to be 1.34(+.04/-.02) eV andthe D0(ICN⁻) equals 0.83(+.04/-.02) eV. In addition, four spectral peaks are observed withphotoelectron kinetic energies of ~0, ~45, ~70, and ~150 – 200 meV, and the kinetic energy isunchanged as the photodetachment photon energy is varied from 2.5 to 4.2 eV. These
autodetachment features are a result of photoexcited ICN⁻ converting internal energy into CN
rotation followed by a quasi-thermionic emission of electrons to produce neutral ICN/INC in its
ground electronic state. The autodetachment features persist when ICN⁻ is solvated by Ar or
CO2, indicating that solvation does not modify the autodetachment mechanism. In addition tothese investigations, current projects are in progress, such as HO3⁻, that require abundant Ar
cooling and an entrainment block as part of the anion source.

To my Yia Yia and Papou, and my Reddinger Grandparents whom I wish I had met.

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Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank Carl for all of his support and guidance over the past sevenyears. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your group and providing me with so many
opportunities to network and meet various people, such as Anne McCoy, Mark Johnson, Marsha
Lester, John Stanton, John Maier, and David Osborn. You have created an amazing researchfamily that I am so honored to be a part of. To the Lineberger group, thank you so much foryour help with not only science but with life. I have learned so much over the past seven years
from interacting with you guys on a daily basis. Specifically, I would like to thank Lenny Shepsfor putting up with me for four great years! Thanks to Jack Barbera for preparing me early on
for the group and advice on teaching. To Scott Wren, we had some great times together fromclass to lab to outside of school. To Yu-Ju, thanks for keeping me honest when you joined thegroup. You really helped to push my understanding of the instrument. To Amanda Case,
Kristen Lemke, Josh Martin, and Wilson Gichuhi, thanks for always listening and helping totroubleshoot when needed.
To my committee members, Mathias Weber, Ronnie Bierbaum, Robert Parson, andHeather Lewandowski, as well as Barney Ellison, all of you have helped to shape and guide my
graduate career. Thank you so much for always lending an ear and giving advice! Together you
have all been involved in one way or another with the Super Group meetings, which has been agreat exposure to science. Thank you for that.
In addition to my time researching, I have interacted with some exceptional teachers andpeople while taking classes at CU and TAing. Thanks to Casey Hynes, Niels Damrauer, andRobert Parson for teaching me physical chemistry. Also, thanks to Mathias for allowing me tovii
sit in on his quantum class. I really enjoyed my TAing experience and am grateful for the
relationships formed with Ronnie Bierbaum, Robert Parson, Margaret Asirvatham, and Elaine
Butler.
Without the help of the staff at JILA, I may have gone crazy a few times. Thank you
Krista Beck for always being there for me. To the machine shop (especially Hans, Ariel, Todd,
Dave, and Blaine), electrical shop (especially James), computing (especially J.R.), and supply
office, thank you for saving me so many times!
I could not have made it this far without my Boulder friends (Nicole Pitre, AnthonyMorfa, Pat Veres, Melissa Butler, Jess Best, Jesse and Kim Marcum, Dave McAdams, Joey
Wolf, Sarah White, Zach Bucuvalas, and CSAW), Boston University friends (Erica Lembo, Jess
Blood, and Tessa Benau),and high school friends (Jocelyn Noya Quintana, Laura Mathers, Sara
Morrow, and Kristy Hepak). Thank you for being there for me! And to Erica, without all of
those long distance minutes, I do not know if I would still be sane. Thanks for always talking tome no matter the time. My education at BU and in HS is critical to me making it this far; sothank you to Amy Mullin, Mort Hoffman, and Bernie Vogler. Researching in Amy’s groupthroughout my undergrad career is the reason that I chose to focus on physical chemistry, sothank you for showing me how much fun p.chem is.
Finally to my family, I owe you the biggest thanks. Without your love and support, I
would not have been able to make it this far. You have believed and encouraged me from day
one! So thank you. To the Link family (Rick, Debi, Emily, Sarah, Mikie, EJ, and Millie), thankyou for loving me without hesitation! I am so grateful to be a part of such an amazing, loving
family. To my cousins (Alex, Jackie, Jim, Lynne, Jodie, Jamie, John, Jess, Caitlin, and Lizzy),viii
aunts (Nana, Marty, Mary Ellen, Mo, Pat, and honorary Rose) and uncles (Nono, Tom, Ed, andDuck), thank you for keeping it real with me. To my brothers and sister-in-laws, (Wendy, Taki,
Edward, Lisa, Patrick, Amanda, Andrew, and Ben), thanks for distracting me when needed(especially Ruby, Pearl, and Julia) and supporting me throughout the years in whatever I chose todo, such as wrestling, football, cheerleading, track, and chemistry. Mom and Dad I cannot thankyou enough for never letting me quit. You have taught me so much about life but, more
importantly, have given me the opportunity to explore and create my life. Thanks for yourundying love, support, and advice. And to my Richie, you are my best friend and companion.
Thank you for braving the storm with me and supporting me to the end! I love you and cannot
thank you enough for all that you have given me. I look forward to our life together and helping
each other through many more adventures.

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Table of Contents
Chapter I: Introduction to Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Anions ................................................. 1
1.1 Overview of Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Anions ............................................................ 1
1.2 Spectroscopic and Dynamics Investigations ......................................................................... 3
1.3 Collecting the Photoelectron Spectrum of Anions................................................................ 7
1.4 Analyzing the Photoelectron Spectrum of Anions.............................................................. 10
1.5 Introduction to Gas-Phase Clusters ..................................................................................... 13
1.6 Overview of Thesis ............................................................................................................. 15
Chapter II: Experimental Methods and Data Analysis ................................................................. 16
2.1 Overview of Experiment and Data Analysis ...................................................................... 16
2.2 Spectrometer Setup ............................................................................................................. 18
2.2.1 Anion Source ............................................................................................................... 19
2.2.2 Wiley-McLaren–Time-of-Flight (WM-TOF) Mass Spectrometer .............................. 21
2.2.3 Photoelectron-velocity–map-imaging (VMI) Spectrometer ........................................ 22
2.3 Laser Setups ........................................................................................................................ 24
2.3.1 Nanosecond Laser Setup .............................................................................................. 25
2.3.2 Femtosecond Laser Setup ............................................................................................ 28
2.4 Data Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 32
2.4.1 DaVis ........................................................................................................................... 32
2.4.2 BASEX Reconstruction ............................................................................................... 35
2.4.3 Photoelectron Spectrum ............................................................................................... 36
2.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 38
Chapter III: Photoelectron Spectroscopy of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3............................................... 39
3.1 Motivation ........................................................................................................................... 39
3.2 Experimental Methods ........................................................................................................ 42
3.3 Photoelectron Spectroscopy of IBr⁻ ................................................................................... 43

x3.3.1 Results .......................................................................................................................... 43
3.3.2 Discussion .................................................................................................................... 46
3.4 Photoelectron Spectroscopy of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 1 – 3 ........................................................ 51
3.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 55
Chapter IV: Watching Charge Transfer within IBr⁻(CO2) ........................................................... 57
4.1 Motivation for time-resolved experiments.......................................................................... 57
4.2 Experimental ....................................................................................................................... 62
4.3 TRPES of IBr⁻(CO2) A’-state photodissociation................................................................ 63
4.3.1 Experimental Results ................................................................................................... 65
4.3.2 Calculations.................................................................................................................. 68
4.3.3 Discussion .................................................................................................................... 72
4.4 TRPES of IBr⁻ B-state photodissociation ........................................................................... 78
4.4.1 Results .......................................................................................................................... 79
4.4.2 Calculations.................................................................................................................. 81
4.4.2 Discussion .................................................................................................................... 83
4.5 TRPES of IBr⁻(CO2) B-state photodissociation ................................................................. 85
4.5.1 Results .......................................................................................................................... 86
4.5.2 Discussion .................................................................................................................... 87
4.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 93
Chapter V: Photoelectron Spectroscopy of ICN⁻ ......................................................................... 95
5.1 Motivation for Photoelectron Spectroscopy of ICN⁻ ......................................................... 95
5.2 Experimental Methods ........................................................................................................ 97
5.3 ICN and ICN⁻ Electronic Structure Calculations ............................................................... 98
5.4 Results of Photoelectron Spectroscopy of ICN⁻ ............................................................... 102
5.5 Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 105
5.5.1 Photoelectron Spectrum of ICN⁻ ............................................................................... 105
5.5.2 Photoelectron Spectrum of ICN⁻(Ar) ........................................................................ 110

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5.5.3 EA(ICN) and D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN⁻) Thermochemical Cycles ......................................... 111
5.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 113
Chapter VI: CN Rotation as an Efficient Energy Sink ............................................................... 115
6.1 Motivation for CN Rotation .............................................................................................. 115
6.2 Experimental Methods ...................................................................................................... 118
6.3 Results of Autodetachment from ICN⁻, ICN⁻(Ar), and ICN⁻(CO2) ................................ 119
6.5 Discussion of Autodetachment Features ........................................................................... 123
6.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 127
Chapter VII: HO3⁻ and Future Projects ...................................................................................... 128
7.1 Motivation for HO3⁻ ......................................................................................................... 128
7.2 Current Results and Experimental Difficulties in Making HO3⁻ ...................................... 131
7.2.1 Expected Photoelectron Spectrum of cis-HO3⁻ ......................................................... 131
7.2.2 Current Results........................................................................................................... 133
7.2.3 Variations to the Ion Source ...................................................................................... 136
7.3 Improvements/Changes to Anion Source ......................................................................... 138
7.3.1 Making OH–(Ar)n ....................................................................................................... 139
7.3.2 Making O2 (a 1)........................................................................................................ 141
7.4 Future Projects .................................................................................................................. 144
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 146
Appendix A: Making the Infinity Spatial Filter .......................................................................... 162
Appendix B: Nanosecond Laser System Timing Scheme for SRS boxes .................................. 168
Appendix C: Femtosecond Laser System Timing Scheme for SRS boxes ................................ 169
Appendix D: General Valve Holders .......................................................................................... 170

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List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Schematic of photoelectron spectroscopy of AB⁻ and the spectroscopic properties
determined from photoelectron spectroscopy of AB⁻. ................................................................... 2
Figure 1.2 Schematic for time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of AB⁻. .............................. 7
Figure 2.1 Illustration of the anion-photoelectron spectrometer. The anion source generates aplasma containing electrons, neutrals, anions, and cations. The anions are extracted into the
WM-TOF, where the anions are separated by their mass-to-charge ratio and focused into theanion-laser interaction region. Here, the anion of choice is overlapped with a pulse of laser
radiation, where electrons are photodetached. The ejected electrons are extracted into the VMI
setup, and a photoelectron image is measured. ............................................................................. 17
Figure 2.2 Illustration of converting an image to a spectrum. The VMI spectrometer measures
the image, and the raw images are compiled with the DaVis software. The 2D-raw images arereconstructed with the BASEX program, which ultimately leads to the photoelectron spectrum.
....................................................................................................................................................... 18
Figure 2.3 Schematic for the nanosecond laser system. Nd:YAG is the abbreviation forneodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet, Nd:Y3Al5O12, laser. SHG, THG, and OPO areacronyms for second harmonic generation, third harmonic generation, and optical parametricoscillator, respectively. PDL-1 stands for pulsed dye laser version 1. Also, the radiation path iscolor coded to correspond to the energy of the radiation.............................................................. 26
Figure 2.4 Schematic of the tunable dye laser, PDL-1. The PDL-1 is pumped by 532-nm
radiation, which is outputted from the Infinity laser. BS, dc, SHG, osc, amp, and preamp are
abbreviations for beam splitter, dye cell, second harmonic generation, oscillator, amplifier, andpreamplifier, respectively. Also, the radiation path is color coded to correspond with the energyof the light. The dotted box can be used for side-pumping or can be removed to end pump the
amplifier dye cell. ......................................................................................................................... 28
Figure 2.5 Schematic for femtosecond laser system. The SHG, BS, and CW stand for second
harmonic generation, beam splitter, and continuous wave. The color coding of the beam pathreflects the energy of the light. ..................................................................................................... 29
Figure 3.1 Photoelectron Spectrum of IBr⁻ (λ = 300 nm). The broad peak at 3.35 eVcorresponds to high-lying vibrational levels of the ground electronic state, X̃ 1+. The groundstate origin is not observed and lies ~1 eV lower in binding energy. The next two sharp features
are the first two excited states of IBr (32 and 31). The inset shows the calculated potential
energy curves of the anion (X̃ 2+) ground electronic state as well as the ground electronic state(X̃ 1+) and the first two excited electronic states of neutral IBr (32 and 31). .......................... 45
Figure 3.2 Photoelectron Spectrum of IBr⁻ showing transitions to the 32 and 31 states. The
solid, black trace is the experimental data. The dotted, blue trace is the Franck-Condon
simulation, and the red sticks are the corresponding Franck-Condon intensity for each transition.

xiii
The origin bands of the 32 and 31 states are designated with 1 . The inset contains thephotoelectron spectrum showing hot bands, which are transitions from excited vibrational statesof IBr⁻. The solid, black trace is the experimental data, and the dashed, blue line is a fit with
Gaussian peaks spaced by 16.6 meV. ........................................................................................... 47
Figure 3.3 The photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3. The ground state and first two
excited states are shown for IBr (black trace), IBr⁻(CO2) (blue trace), IBr⁻(CO2)2 (green trace),and IBr⁻(CO2)3 (red trace). The electron affinity, EA, is not directly observed but identified foreach spectrum. The vertical, dashed lines are the VDEs for each peak from a fit using threeGaussian lineshapes. The inset contains the energy diagram for the clusters, showing therelationship between cluster electron affinities and the solvent binding energies of the neutral andanion clusters. ............................................................................................................................... 52
Figure 4.1 Calculated potential energy curves of IBr⁻. The six lowest electronic states of IBr⁻
are plotted as a function of the I–Br bond length.......................................................................... 59
Figure 4.2 Determining the transient spectrum for IBr⁻(CO2) A′ studies. The pump-probe
spectrum taken at t = 50 ps (red trace) for the A′-state photodissociation studies contains signals
from direct photodetachment by the individual pump and probe pulses. These one-photon
signals from pump-only or probe-only spectra (black traces) are subtracted from the red trace.
The difference spectrum for t = 50 ps (blue trace) is the transient time-resolved signal fromconsecutive pump-probe pulses. The transient spectrum is determined in this way for all timedelays studied. Also, the same background correction is made for the B-state photodissociation
studies. .......................................................................................................................................... 63
Figure 4.3 Schematic diagram for photodissociation of IBr⁻(CO2) following excitation to the A′2
1/2 surface. The lower potential energy surface is the X̃ 2+ electronic state, and the higher
energy surface is the A′ 21/2 electronic state. The surfaces are plotted as a function of the I–Br
bond length and the CO2 position, where the two extremes are the CO2 residing on the I (purple
sphere) or Br (green sphere) end. The pump-probe experimental scheme is shown with arrows.
The three dissociation channels are depicted by numbers 1 – 3. The three dissociation channels
are also shown on the right side that displays the potential energy curves for the X̃ (red traces)
and A′ (black traces) electronic states. The solid curves are the calculated bare IBr⁻ potential
energy curves, and the dotted curves represent the binding energy of CO2, which is ~ 200 meV.
....................................................................................................................................................... 65
Figure 4.4 Time-resolved photoelectron spectra of dissociating IBr⁻(CO2) following excitation
to the A′ electronic state. The 3D contour plot shows the transient photoelectron spectra as afunction of eBE and t, where t = -200 fs to +50 ps. The right axis shows the approximate
corresponding I–Br bond length for various time delays. The white circles are the fitted,
Gaussian peak centers at t. The top panel contains the transient spectrum (solid trace) for t =50 ps and the corresponding fit with three independent Gaussian peaks (dotted trace). The three
arrows above the spectral features indicate the measured transitions from I⁻, I⁻(CO2), and Br⁻. 66
Figure 4.5 The geometry of CO2 prior to photodissociation (a) At low internal temperatures, theCO2 molecule sits near the waist of IBr⁻. As the temperature increases, the CO2 moleculexiv
samples a larger geometry around the solute and can be found on the Br (θCIBr = 0°) or I (θCIBr =180°) end. (b) The formation of channel 2, I⁻(CO2), occurs when the CO2 molecule is around thewaist of the solute or near the I end. ............................................................................................. 71
Figure 4.6 MD simulations of IBr⁻(CO2) following photoexcitation to the A′ electronic state.
The left-hand panels (red) represent channel 3 dynamics, while the right-hand panels (black)
represent the dynamics of channel 1 and 2, (B), or just channel 2, (D), (F), and (H). (A) and (B)plot the growth of the experimentally measured photoelectron signals for the Br⁻ and I⁻/I⁻CO2(A′ state) spectral features, respectively. (C) and (D) graph the calculated I–C distances as afunction of t. The calculated energy differences between the X̃ 2+ and A′ 21/2 (dashed line)or the A 23/2 and A′ 21/2 (solid line) electronic states are plotted as a function of t in (E) and(F). (E) contains the calculated energy gap for an IBr⁻(CO2) cluster with an OCO angle of 180°,
while (F) for an OCO angle of 175°. The horizontal dashed lines in (E) and (F) correspond to 1
or 2 quanta in the CO2 bend. (G) and (H) show the calculated evolution of the excess charge on
the I atom. The experimental t corresponds to an I–Br bond distance, which is shown above thepanels as snapshots of the dissociating IBr⁻(CO2) for a trajectory that leads to channel 3 (left) or
channel 2 (right). ........................................................................................................................... 73
Figure 4.7 The calculated change in the dipole moment (μz) along the I–Br bond axis. The
black circles and trace represent the difference between the dipole moments of IBr⁻(CO2) and[IBr⁻ + CO2]. The red triangles and trace represent the difference between the dipole momentsof IBr⁻(CO2) and [I⁻(CO2) + Br]. The double-sided arrow indicates when the excess chargefavors I⁻ or Br⁻.............................................................................................................................. 77
Figure 4.8 The schematic diagram for TRPES of dissociating IBr⁻ following excitation to the B
state. The calculated potential energy curves for IBr⁻ and IBr are shown with the relevant statesbolded. The IBr⁻ in its ground electronic state is promoted to the B 2+ state with the pumppulse at t = 0. At some time later, t, the probe pulse interacts with the dissociating fragments toremove an electron. The I and Br atoms are depicted by the purple and green spheres,
respectively. .................................................................................................................................. 79
Figure 4.9 Time-resolved photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻ photodissociating along the B-electronic
state. (a) The 3D contour plots the spectra as a function of delay time, t, and electron binding
energy. (b) The reference spectrum shows transitions to Br and Br* and is taken under the same
experimental conditions. (c) The integrated signal for the Br (filled, black circles) and Br*(unfilled, black circles) channels along with the fits for each channel are shown. The integrated
photoelectron intensity from the calculated TRPES for the Br channel is shown as the dashed,
red trace......................................................................................................................................... 81
Figure 4.10 The calculated charge and quantum wave packet propagations for IBr⁻. (a) The
charge on the I atom for each electronic state of IBr⁻ as a function of RI–Br. (b) The Ξd is plotted
as a function of RI–Br at various time delays, t. The inset contains the integrated Ξd after charge
has localized on Br (RI–Br > 6 Å) as a function of t. The inset is a good approximation to theexperimental TRPES signal if the cross section for photodetachment is dependent on charge
localization. ................................................................................................................................... 84

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Figure 4.11 Time-resolved photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻(CO2) photodissociation following
excitation to the B electronic state. (a) The 3D contour plots the spectra as a function of delaytime, t, and electron binding energy. (b) The reference spectrum shows transitions to Br, Br*,I, and I*, which are taken under the same experimental conditions. (c) The integrated signal fortransitions to Br (black circles) and I (white circles) along with the fits for each transition. ....... 87
Figure 4.12 MD simulations of IBr⁻(CO2) following photoexcitation to the B electronic state at
200 K. (a) – (c) represent a trajectory that yields the adiabatic products: I* + Br⁻ + CO2, while(d) – (e) represent a trajectory that changes electronic states to yield I⁻ + Br* + CO2. Panels (a)and (d) plot the calculated Br–C distances as a function of t. The calculated electronic energies,(b) and (e), and charge on the I, (c) and (f), for the B (solid trace) and a′ (dotted trace) electronic
states are shown, where the thick traces follow the electronic state of the trajectory. The redarrow highlights the time the charge starts localizing on the I atom and the grey box indicates thetime prior to the calculated charge localization in bare IBr⁻. ....................................................... 89
Figure 4.13 Geometries and charge distributions that favor a charge hop. The charge on the I
atom at t = 10 fs plotted as a function of the CO2 geometry relative to the I–Br bond axis. The
small angles correspond to the CO2 molecule being closer to the Br end (green ball), whereas thelarger angles have CO2 near the I end (purple ball). The white circles are trajectories that hop
electronic states (I⁻ product), and the red circles are trajectories that do not hop electronic states(Br⁻ product). ................................................................................................................................ 91
Figure 4.14 Delay times for charge localization on the I atom. The number of trajectories that
result in localization of the charge on I for various delay times, t, are shown in the main graph.
The inset contains the integrated number of trajectories as a function of pump-probe delay time.
The time at which the charge becomes localized on I is similar to the pump-probe delay of theexperimentally observed I– photodetachment signal rise, t = 60 fs. ........................................... 92
Figure 5.1 (a) Potential energy (V) is plotted as a function of the I to CN center of mass (COM)distance, R(I–CNCOM), in the linear (θ = 0°) geometry. The red circle highlights the conicalintersection region between the 11 and 30+ states. (b) V is plotted as a function of the angle
between the R vector and CN axis, θ, for R(I–CNCOM) = 3.2 Å. In both panels, the ground-state
wave function for the anion,(R, θ), is shown (dotted trace), and the grey box represents theFranck-Condon region. Also, the electronic ground state of the anion has been shifted by-0.4 eV to have better agreement with the measured transitions to the 32 and 31 states. ....... 100
Figure 5.2 Composite photoelectron spectrum of ICN–. The broad peak at ~ 3.2 eV corresponds
to high-lying vibrational levels of the ground electronic state of ICN, X̃ 1+. The ground-state
origin lies more than 1 eV lower in binding energy and is not observed. The next three sharp
features are the first three excited states of ICN (, 31, and 30-). The broad asymmetricpeak at ~5.25 eV consists of transitions to the conical intersection (CI) region (11 and 30+) andhas some overlap with the dissociative 30- electronic state. For comparison, the inset shows the–photoelectron spectrum of IBr . .................................................................................................. 104

xvi
Figure 5.3 Composite photoelectron spectra of ICN– (black) and ICN–(Ar) (red) showing
transitions to the 32 and 31 states. Solvation by Ar results in a 30 meV shift to higher binding
energy and a sharpening of the peaks for both electronic states. The shoulder on the higher
binding energy side of the 32 feature becomes more prominent in the ICN–(Ar) spectrum andlies ~20 meV above the main peak, which is consistent with the calculated I–CN stretch
frequency of the 32 state. .......................................................................................................... 105
Figure 5.4 Thermochemical cycles used to determine the EA(ICN) and D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–). The
two thermochemical cycles involve either EA(CN)128 or D0(X̃ 1+ I–CN)119 values from previous
measurements, along with the measured VDE ICNand calculated D0(I–CN) values
from this work. ............................................................................................................................ 112
Figure 6.1 The propagated wave function on the 21/2 surface.27 The ground-vibrational wave
function of ICN– 2+ is promoted to the 21/2 surface, where the wave function begins topropagate at t = 0. The contour plot shows the wave function at t = 0, 180, and 360 fs. The ICN
and INC linear geometries are θ = 0° and 180°, respectively. .................................................... 117
Figure 6.2 Photoelectron spectrum of ICN– plotted as a function of electron kinetic energy. The
spectrum ( = 335 nm, 3.7 eV) shows low-kinetic energy features on top of a broad background.
This background corresponds to the direct photodetachment of ICN– to the ground state of ICN.
..................................................................................................................................................... 120
Figure 6.3 Relative cross section of low-kinetic energy features from autodetachment of ICN–.
(a) Photoelectron spectrum of ICN– ( = 335 nm, 3.7 eV) as a function of electron kinetic
energy. (b) The 3D contour plot of the photoelectron spectrum of ICN– ( = 2.6 – 4.1 eV) as afunction of electron kinetic energy. The two I– peaks are a result of ICN– photofragmentation.
(c) Relative cross-section for peak 1 showing at least two maxima at 3.25 and 3.7 eV. ............ 121
Figure 6.4 Photoelectron spectrum of ICN– (black), ICN–(Ar) (blue trace), and ICN–(CO2) (green
trace) plotted as a function of electron kinetic energy. The spectrum ( = 330 nm, 3.8 eV) shows
low-kinetic energy features on top of a broad background. This background corresponds to thedirect photodetachment of ICN– to the ground state of ICN. The sharp feature (or bump) near
0.7 eV in the blue and green trace (or black trace) results from the photodetachment of I–. ..... 123
Figure 6.5 Some of the potential energy curves for ICN– and ICN are plotted as a function of the
I to CN center of mass (COM) distance, R(I–CNCOM), in the linear (θ = 0 and 180°) geometries.
The solid curves indicate the I–CNCOM (θ = 0°) geometry, and the dashed curves indicate the I–
NCCOM (θ = 180°). The red box highlights the region where autodetachment occurs. ............. 126
Figure 7.1 Calculated cis- and trans-HO3 structures for the anion and radical species. These
calculations are performed with CCSD(T)/aug-pVTZ level of theory.144 .................................. 132
Figure 7.2 Qualitative potential energy curves for cis- and trans-HO3, cis- HO3⁻, and OH–(O2).
..................................................................................................................................................... 133

xvii
Figure 7.3 Photoelectron spectra for an anion of mass-to-charge ratio 49. Two spectra are takenwith different photon wavelengths, where λ = 532 nm is shown in red and λ = 355 nm is shownin blue. The large peak at an eBE of ~1.95 eV is from OH–(O2). The other spectral peaks in the532-nm spectrum are not definitively assigned at this time. ...................................................... 135
Figure 7.4 Schematic setup for cis-HO3⁻ generation. The chemical-based method for producing
O2 (a 1) is shown on the left. Inside the vacuum chamber shows the setup for the entrainment
block with three General Valves operating to produce OH–(Ar)n clusters. The O2 (a 1) is
introduced by the capillary tube directed into the throat of the expansion. ................................ 143
Figure A.1 The drawing for the pyrex tube and aperture........................................................... 163
Figure A.2 The drawing for the aperture only. .......................................................................... 164
Figure A.3 (a) – (c) show three different views of the setup for attaching the lenses to the spatial
filter body. (c) shows how the homemade optic holder is mounted to the translation stage. .... 165
Figure D.1 Drawing of the adjustable-valve holder for General Valve. The two holes on thefront are tapped and secure the bottom of the General Valve faceplate. The groove down thecenter is cut out so that the body of the solenoid can rotate freely. This holder is attached to ametal block inside the chamber through four 8-32 screws. ........................................................ 170
Figure D.2 Drawing of the entrainment-block assembly. The front and back plates are held
together with three General Valves by using a nut and bolt for each of the clearance holes. The
top drawing is the front of the entrainment block. Only a hole is cut out for the central valve,
which produces the main expansion. The bottom drawing is the back of the entrainment block.
The three faceplates attach to the reverse side that is shown. The side of the entrainment blockthat is shown has a groove cutout for the gases introduced by the two end valves; therefore, thegases produced from the two side valves are entrained into the main expansion....................... 170

xviii

List of Tables
Table 1.1 Comparison between a typical hemispherical analyzer, magnetic bottle, and velocitymap imaging for detecting photoelectrons ...................................................................................... 8
Table 3.1 Spectroscopic constants for IBr (X̃ 1+, 32, and 31) and IBr⁻ (X̃ 2+). .................... 50
Table 3.2 Fits to the photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3 and electron affinities (EA)
for IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3. .............................................................................................................. 54
Table 5.1 Calculated spectroscopic properties of ICN– (X̃ 2+) and ICN (X̃ 1+, 32, and 31)from this work, along with previously measured values for ICN (X̃ 1+). ................................. 101
Table 5.2 Summary of experimentally determined values: dissociation energy (D0), adiabatic
electron affinity (EA), and term energies (T0). ........................................................................... 107
Table B.1 Nanosecond laser system timing scheme for SRS boxes. Mass gate not used......... 168
Table C.1 Femtosecond laser system timing scheme for SRS boxes. Mass gate not used. ...... 169

1Chapter I: Introduction to Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Anions

1.1 Overview of Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Anions
The quantum mechanical concepts pertaining to the photoelectric effect are the same as
those for photoelectron spectroscopy. In general, the photoelectric effect explains how electrons
are ejected from a metal surface by radiation. If the photon energy exceeds the work function of
the metal, then electrons can be emitted with a distribution of kinetic energies; the maximum
electron kinetic energy (eKEmax) is
eKEmax = hν – φ,Eqn. 1.1

where hν is the energy of the photon and φ is the work function of the metal. φ is the minimum
amount of energy needed to remove an electron from a metal surface. If the energy of thephoton does not exceed φ, then an electron is not ejected and remains on the surface even if
multiple low-energy photons hit the metal surface. To a first approximation, one electron
receives all of the energy from one photon; therefore, the photoelectron distribution is
independent of the photon flux and is only dependent on the photon energy.
The technique of photoelectron spectroscopy measures the kinetic energy distribution ofejected electrons (or photoelectrons) to yield a photoelectron spectrum. All of the experiments
presented in this thesis are carried out with gas-phase anions as the target; therefore, we
photodetach electrons from anions to generate neutral species plus photoelectrons. A schematicof photoelectron spectroscopy of anions (AB⁻) is shown in Fig. 1.1. To photodetach an electron,a photon with known energy, hν, interacts with the anion, AB⁻. If the photon energy exceeds the2electron binding energy (eBE), then electrons are photodetached with a distribution of electron
kinetic energies (eKE):
eKE = hν – eBE .

Eqn. 1.2

In our experiments, the energy of the photon is measured with an optical spectrometer and theeKE is determined with an electron velocity-map imaging spectrometer. The photoelectron
spectroscopy of anions (AB⁻) yields information about both the anion (AB⁻) and the neutral
species (AB).

Figure 1.1 Schematic of photoelectron spectroscopy of AB⁻ and the spectroscopic properties
determined from photoelectron spectroscopy of AB⁻.

Besides learning about the anion and neutral species, there are some practical advantages
to measuring the photoelectron spectra of gas-phase anions, such as the ability to mass-select3anions of choice and the lower photon energy needed to photodetach electrons. By coupling
mass spectrometry with photoelectron spectroscopy, an assortment of ions can be separated bymass and charge prior to interacting with the laser radiation. This allows the desired anion to bemeasured without contamination from other ions. Also, photodetaching an electron from ananion typically requires lower photon energy (< 4 eV) than photodetaching an electron from aneutral (about 10 eV or more).1 In general, anions have lower electron binding energies because
the extra electron increases screening of the positive nucleus, which increases the size of theanion relative to the neutral, thus lowering the binding energy. The lower photon energy
required for photodetaching electrons from anions is readily available with commercial laser
systems. Measuring the photoelectron spectroscopy of anions generates considerable amounts of
information in addition to the binding energy of the electron. Many useful reviews have been
written about photoelectron spectroscopy, and the reader is referred to these articles for
additional information.2-8
1.2 Spectroscopic and Dynamics Investigations
Photoelectron spectroscopy of anions can be summarized in one equation:
AB⁻ + hv → AB + e⁻(eKE) ,Eqn. 1.3

where AB⁻ is the generic diatomic anion and AB is the generic neutral molecule. In Fig. 1.1, theanion AB⁻ is prepared in the ground vibrational state (v = 0) of the ground electronic state X̃. To
simplify Fig. 1.1, the anion is depicted as being purely in v = 0, and vibrationally excited anions
are discussed later in the chapter. After the anion interacts with a photon of energy hν, theelectron is ejected from an anion to produce the neutral electronic state, X̃ AB or Ã AB, plus a
corresponding photoelectron. The neutral molecule is left in some ro-vibrational state of X̃ AB

4or Ã AB and the distribution of ejected electrons corresponds to quantized states of the neutral
molecule AB . This distribution of photoelectrons is measured to generate the photoelectron
spectrum, as shown on the left side of Fig. 1.1. The spectrum can either be reported in terms of
eKE or eBE (Eqn. 1.2). However, we typically report the spectra as a function of eBE because
this makes the spectra independent of the photon energy used.
In Fig. 1.1, the measured spectrum contains two groups of peaks (vibrational
progressions) corresponding to transitions between X̃ AB⁻ (v = 0) and X̃ AB or Ã AB. The
different shapes of the progressions depend upon the overlap between the anion and neutral
states. As the hν arrow indicates in Fig. 1.1, transitions between the anion and neutral AB are“vertical”. The geometry of the anion (or Bond Length, RAB) is essentially unchanged as theelectron is photodetached from the anion because the nuclei (A and B) are so much heavier thanthe electron that the nuclei do not have time to respond to the changing electronic structure as theelectron is photodetached to yield the neutral molecule. Thus, photoelectron spectroscopy
follows the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Therefore, the neutral electronic states areaccessed at the geometry of the anion in its ground electronic and vibrational state.
Interpreting the measured photoelectron spectrum yields a number of properties of boththe anion and neutral, where some properties are depicted in Fig. 1.1. The shapes of thevibrational progressions are dictated by the overlap between the vibrational levels of the anion
and neutral electronic states. Analysis of the intensity and distribution of the vibrational
progressions tells us about the change in equilibrium geometries between the anion and neutralelectronic states (Re). For example, the Re is small between the ground states of AB⁻ and AB;
therefore, the vibrational progression in Fig. 1.1 that corresponds to transitions to the X̃ AB state5
is more narrow with the largest contribution from the v″ = 0 → v′ = 0 transition. Conversely, thevibrational progression corresponding to transitions to the Ã AB electronic state is more
extended and the vertical detachment energy corresponds to v′ = 2, which indicates that the Re
is greater between the X̃ AB⁻ and Ã AB states. Both vibrational progressions contain peaks
which are separated by the vibrational spacing within the neural electronic states, ωe. Since Reis small between the ground states of AB⁻ and AB, the electron affinity (EA) of AB is directly
measured, which is the X̃ AB⁻(v″ = 0) → X̃ AB(v′ = 0) transition. Also, both spectral envelopes
contain transitions to the v′ = 0 state; the energy between these two peaks in the photoelectron
spectrum is related to the term energy (T0) splitting between the two neutral states. Finally, theseproperties are used to give the dissociation energy (D0) of the anion or neutral molecule.
The generic photoelectron spectrum in Fig. 1.1 is interpreted assuming that all of theanions are populated in the v = 0 state and that rotational energy is not significant. If the anions
have population in vibrational states other than v = 0 of the ground electronic state, thentransitions from these “hot” anions produce hot bands in the photoelectron spectrum. The
presence of hot bands can add congestion to the measured spectrum. However, if the vibrational
spacing is large enough in both the anion and neutral electronic states, then the hot bands can be
assigned and the vibrational frequency of the anion can be measured. Unlike the vibrationalenergy spacing, the rotational energy spacing is usually too small to resolve and congests the
spectrum. There are higher resolution techniques, such as ZEKE (Zero Electron Kinetic Energy)
and SEVI (Slow Electron Velocity-map Imaging), that can more easily resolve rotationalenergies; however, these techniques tend to be the exception for measuring rotational energies
with photoelectron spectroscopy. Depending on the rotational temperature of the anion and the6change in rotational energy between the anion and neutral electronic states, the true origin ofvibrationally resolved features can be shifted away from the center of the measured peaks.9
Therefore, considerable effort is taken to produce cold anions with little rotational andvibrational excitation, which reduces congestion in the measured photoelectron spectrum.
In addition to using photoelectron spectroscopy for spectroscopic investigations of theanion and neutral electronic states, the dissociation dynamics of the anion can be probed with
time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy.6,7 Figure 1.2 shows a schematic representation oftime-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of AB⁻. In these pump-probe experiments, the first
photon excites the ground state anion, X̃ AB⁻, to a dissociative excited state, Ã AB⁻. The
photoexcited anion dissociates according to the Ã AB⁻ potential energy curve to yield thephotofragments that correspond to the adiabatic channel, A⁻ and B. The second photon, delayedby some time (t), probes the dissociating anion by photodetaching the electron. By measuring
the eKE as a function of t, the dissociating anion is tracked in real time; therefore, the evolving
photoelectron spectra can be interpreted in terms of the evolving electronic wave function as theexcited anion dissociates. This technique directly gives the time for charge localization onto thephotofragments. Moreover, if the dissociating species undergoes a nonadiabatic transition to alower energy state and the photofragments are changed, the time-resolved photoelectron spectra
will monitor the transition by following the electronic character of the dissociating anion. Timeresolved photoelectron spectroscopy is a very powerful tool for investigating nonadiabatic
dissociation dynamics.

7

Figure 1.2 Schematic for time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of AB⁻.

1.3 Collecting the Photoelectron Spectrum of Anions
Experimentally, there are a few common ways to measure the photodetached electrons,
which ultimately lead to the photoelectron spectrum. Table 1.1 compares the three mostcommon methods for measuring the energy of photoelectrons: hemispherical analyzer, magnetic
bottle, and velocity-map imaging. This table includes the most general values and does notinclude the many improvements and modifications that could be made to each technique. The
readers are referred to additional resources for more details on the hemispherical analyzer8 andmagnetic bottle;10 the velocity-map imaging is discussed in greater detail in the following
chapter.

8
Table 1.1 Comparison between a typical hemispherical analyzer, magnetic bottle, and velocitymap imaging for detecting photoelectrons
Hemispherical
Analyzer

Magnetic Bottle

Velocity-Map
Imaging

Instrument Resolution~ 8 meV~ 30 meVKE/KEb ≈ 5%

Collection Efficiency

0.2%

~100%

100%

Pulsed/CWa Operation

CW

PulsedPulsedPhotoelectron Angular
Distribution

Yes

No

Yes

a

CW stands for continuous wave
For example, a peak at a kinetic energy (KE) of 1 eV has a full width at half maximum (KE)of 50 meVb

Briefly, the hemispherical analyzer, operating in a continuous wave (CW) mode, detects
photodetached electrons with a U-shaped analyzer, where only certain electron kinetic energies
make it through for a given set of voltages. To allow for the hemispherical analyzer to measure
the angular distribution of the photoelectrons, the collection angle is very small, leading to 0.2%
collection efficiency of the photoelectrons. The magnetic bottle apparatus is operated in a pulsed
mode and the magnetic field within the interaction and detection region is shaped like an
inverted bottle. The electrons are photodetached in a strong, inhomogeneous magnetic field(1500 G) that decreases to a smaller magnetic field (2 G) within a few centimeters. The gradient
within the field aligns the electrons and directs them through a drift tube where thephotoelectrons are temporally separated by kinetic energy prior to impinging upon a detector.
Typically, this method loses all information about the angular distribution of the photoelectrons.
The velocity-map imaging technique, which is pulsed, focuses the photoelectrons with the same
velocity vector (speed and direction) onto the same place on the detector. This focusing is done

9with a three-element electrostatic lens followed by a field-free flight region to capture 100% of
the photoelectrons.
Each method has its advantages and disadvantages; therefore, the choice of method
depends on what is most important for a given experiment. For the experiments presented in thisthesis, the velocity-map imaging method is used. With this technique, the photoelectrons arecollected as a function of velocity (v), where the instrument resolution is a function of v/v.
Therefore, the resolution is not constant over kinetic energy (KE), which leads to the KE/KE
description for instrument resolution. By changing the photodetachment energy, the KE of theejected photoelectrons can be changed, and the photoelectron spectrum can be shifted in kinetic
energy to have different resolutions. The higher collection efficiency leads to shorter collection
times. Pulsed versus continuous wave (CW) methods complement different types of anion (orcation or neutral) sources. With velocity-map imaging, the angular distribution and kinetic
energy of the photoelectrons are collected simultaneously.
The angular distribution of the photoelectrons is related to the symmetry of the orbitalfrom which the photoelectron originated. The photoelectron angular distribution is defined by
the following equation:11
I(θ) = (4)-1[1 + βP2(cosθ)] ,Eqn. 1.4

where θ is the angle between the photoelectron velocity vector and the electric field vector(polarization of the laser light), β is the anisotropy parameter (ranging from -1 to 2, where β = -1,
0, and 2 is a sin2θ, isotropic, and cos2θ distribution of photoelectrons, respectively), and P2(cosθ)is the second order Legendre polynomial, (3cos2θ – 1)/2. As long as the photoelectron is above

10
threshold (eKE > 200 meV), the anisotropy value does not vary significantly as a function ofeKE. For an atom, it may be possible to define the orbital from which the photoelectron isremoved because photodetachment leads to a change of one unit of angular momentum, l = ±1.
For example, if an electron is removed from an s orbital (l = 0), the photoelectron is a p wave (l =1) and β = +2, where the photoelectron intensity maximum is along the electric field vector, θ =0°.
The situation is not so simple for molecules because molecules do not have pure s or p
(or higher orders of angular momentum) orbitals but a mixture. The β-parameters can still be
useful in distinguishing between different electronic states, where each electronic state has acharacteristic β value. If the anisotropy difference between the two electronic states issignificant, then determining the β-parameters can separate the spectral contribution from twooverlapping electronic states. For the experiments presented here, the anisotropy values are notused in our analysis but still remain an important advantage of velocity-map imaging.
1.4 Analyzing the Photoelectron Spectrum of Anions
Regardless of the technique used to collect the photoelectrons, the measured
photoelectron spectra can be interpreted by simulating the spectra. However, the “governing
forces” involved in photoelectron spectroscopy of anions need to be understood prior to
successfully modeling the spectra, such as the overlap between the anion and neutral states,
selection rules, and the photodetachment cross section. As is discussed in a previous section, thetransitions between the anion and neutral species in photoelectron spectroscopy obey the BornOppenheimer approximation, and the nuclei do not move when the electron is photodetached.
Therefore, the transition moment, M, is defined as

11Ψ′′| |Ψ′ ,Eqn. 1.5

where the initial and final wave functions are Ψ″ and Ψ′, respectively, and μ is the electronictransition moment between the states.8 The Born-Oppenheimer approximation allows the total
wave function (Ψ) to be broken down into independent electronic (ψe), vibrational (ψv), androtational (ψr) wave functions for both the initial and final states:Ψ = ψeψvψr .

Eqn. 1.6

After substituting Eqn. 1.6 into Eqn. 1.5, ψe and ψr can be neglected if it is assumed that μ is
constant over different vibrational modes within an electronic state and the rotational overlap
integral is constant for all vibrational states, respectively.8 Therefore, M is proportional only tothe overlap between the vibrational wave functions, and the square of this overlap gives theFranck-Condon Factors (FCF) or vibrational overlap intensity:8
|

′′|

′| .

Eqn. 1.7

For a diatomic molecule, the stretch is the only vibrational mode, and the analysis of the
FCF is fairly straightforward. For polyatomic anions, the Franck-Condon analysis becomes
more complicated because more than one vibrational mode can be active. If there is a largechange in the coordinate that corresponds to a vibrational mode between the anion and neutral
species (i.e., large changes in the equilibrium bond angle corresponding to a bending vibration),then there will be an extended Franck-Condon progression for that vibrational mode.
Conversely, if there is not a large geometry change along a vibrational coordinate between theanion and neutral species, then the v″ = 0 → v′ = 0 transition will be the strongest with minimal
contribution from higher v′ states. All symmetric transitions are allowed, which includes

12transitions to symmetric normal modes and v = 0, ±2, ±4, ±6, … transitions between nontotally symmetric normal modes. The intensities for different vibrational progressions are
determined by the FCF, which includes the change in equilibrium geometries between the anion
and neutral electronic states.
In general, selection rules for photoelectron spectroscopy are much less restrictive thanabsorption spectroscopy. For example, the only selection rule for electronic transitions inphotoelectron spectroscopy of anions is that the anion and neutral species vary by one electron(S = ±1/2). To a first approximation, the electronic configuration of the neutral species is
identical to the anion with the exception of one electron missing. If the anion is a doublet (S =1/2), then transitions to the singlet (S = 0) or triplet (S = 1) are allowed. However, in absorption
spectroscopy S ≠ 0 are strongly forbidden transitions, making transitions between singlet andtriplet states very weak to nonexistent. For the studies presented in this thesis, all of the lowest
energy electronic states of the neutral species are observed; our limitation to detecting otherelectronic states is not caused by the S = ±1/2 selection rule but is limited by our laser energy(Ephoton < 5.6 eV).
The photodetachment cross section varies as a function of the kinetic energy of theejected photoelectron, and this change becomes significant at low eKEs (< 200 meV): WignerThreshold Law.12 In general, the photoelectron has to overcome not only the binding energy ofthe electron but the long-range attraction, which has different cross sections depending on the
angular momentum of the departing electron.8 The higher the angular momentum is for the
departing electron, then the stronger the long-range interaction. For example, thephotodetachment cross section for an s-wave electron (ejected from a p orbital) has less

13
dependence on the kinetic energy, where the cross section scales as eKE1/2. A photodetached pelectron (ejected from an s or d orbital) has a larger dependence on the kinetic energy, and thephotodetachment cross section scales as eKE3/2. For molecules, the cross section dependence is
not trivial to model. Therefore, we typically do not account for the changing photodetachment
cross section when modeling the spectra, but do qualitatively justify spectral features at low eKE
using the Wigner-Threshold Law.
The spectra can be simulated by determining the FCF between the anion and neutral
species and plotting the FCF as a function of eKE or eBE, where the FCF are convoluted with alineshape that is representative of the experimental resolution. The PESCAL program written by
Kent Ervin does all this in one interactive program, where parameters of the anion and neutral
can be changed to best simulate the measured photoelectron spectra.13 This program calculates
the FCF for harmonic oscillators, Morse oscillators, or arbitrary potentials, where all vibrationalmodes are treated as independent and hot bands can be included. The values that lead to thesimulated spectrum are the spectroscopic parameters of the anion and neutral species, such as ωe,
EA, Re, and T0. Understanding which vibrational modes are active, which electronic states canbe accessed, and how the photodetachment cross section changes become important ininterpreting and simulating the measured photoelectron spectra.
1.5 Introduction to Gas‐Phase Clusters
Clusters are collections of atoms or molecules that are not covalently bound to each otherbut weakly interact with each other through electrostatic intermolecular forces.14,15 Cluster
properties are categorized somewhere between the gas phase and condensed phase and arewidely applicable. For example, studying cluster formation leads to understanding how particles

14
are formed in combustion processes and the atmosphere.14 Moreover, they can also be used tosimplify solution-phase processes by removing the bulk (or averaging) aspect of solution phase
while still capturing the important dynamics, such as caging, recombination, isomerization, etc.,
in a more controlled environment.16 We take advantage of this unique ability of clusters to study
anionic clusters in the gas-phase, where size-selected clusters are studied.
There are two types of charged clusters: delocalized (hydrated electrons, ammoniatedelectrons, etc.) and localized (ionic chromophore with weakly bound solvent molecules (Ar,CO2, H2O, etc.)).15 Of these two types of clusters, this thesis has a focus on the latter, where theinfluence of the solvent on the anionic chromophore is determined. The spectroscopic propertiesand dynamics of the ionic chromophore can be shifted or altogether changed depending on thenumber of solvent molecules, the binding energy of the solvent, and the geometry of the solvent
around the ionic chromophore. Studies of anionic clusters give spectroscopic and dynamical
information on a microscopic scale that can be transferred and applied to bulk solution, such as
electrolytic chemistry.14,15
Another advantage of ion solvation with weakly bound solvents is the evaporation ofsolvent molecules from the clustered anion during the interval between formation and mass
analysis to reduce the internal temperature of the ionic chromophore and/or cluster. For
example, anions or anionic clusters that are solvated by Ar (binding energy ~50 meV) can only
have a small amount of internal energy in order for the solvent to remain bound and not be“boiled off”.17-19 Tagging with weakly bound solvents is a commonly used technique forpreparing anions in (or close to) their ground vibrational state.20,21 More recently H2 tagging has
been used,22,23 which lowers the internal temperature even more than Ar, but will not be used in

15
the work presented in this thesis. Before the influence of the solvent can be determined, the bareanionic chromophore must first be understood to see how the solvent affects the chromophore.
1.6 Overview of Thesis
The remainder of the thesis contains the experimental setup, four complete stories (which
are part of five published journal articles), and works in progress. The experimental chapter(Chapter II) describes how the photoelectron spectrum is measured. The spectrometer setup, theanion source, mass-selection region, and anion-laser interaction region are described. The
chemical systems presented in this thesis require two laser systems: the nanosecond laser system
for spectroscopic studies and the femtosecond laser system to study time-resolved dynamics.
The photodetached electrons are measured with velocity-map imaging, where the raw images areconverted into the photoelectron spectra as a function of energy.
The remaining chapters describe both spectroscopic properties and dynamics of small
anions and anionic clusters. In chapter III, the photoelectron spectroscopy of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n =0 – 3, is discussed.24 The dissociation dynamics of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 and 1, are investigated with
time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy in Chapter IV.25,26 Chapters V and VI containdiscussions of photoelectron spectroscopy of ICN– and ICN–(Ar) and the dynamics ofelectronically excited states of bare and solvated ICN–.27,28 The final chapter, Chapter VII,
describes current projects that are underway, such as HO3⁻. This chapter also includes recentchanges to the anion source, which is essential for the formation of HO3⁻ and upcoming
investigations.

16

Chapter II: Experimental Methods and Data Analysis

2.1 Overview of Experiment and Data Analysis
The experimental methods used to measure the photoelectron spectra of small anions in
the gas phase are described in this chapter. As is typical with physical chemistry experiments,
the experimental procedure and analysis change depending on the species being studied andwhether or not the experiment is a spectroscopic or dynamics study. This chapter includes thegeneral procedure and analysis for the photoelectron spectroscopy presented in this thesis.
However, within each chapter, specific information for that study will be provided.
Overall, the experimental hardware for photoelectron spectroscopy has been previously
built and established. The apparatus includes a spectrometer (the ion source, Wiley-McLaren–
Time-of-Flight (WM-TOF) mass spectrometer, and photoelectron-velocity–map-imaging (VMI)
spectrometer) and laser system, which is illustrated in Fig. 2.1. Following the ion production in a
vacuum chamber, the anions are mass separated and focused into the anion-laser interaction
region where the anions interact with a pulse of laser radiation to photodetach an electron. The
photodetached electrons are measured with the VMI spectrometer to produce an image, which
can then be analyzed. For the spectroscopic investigations, the nanosecond laser system is usedbecause energy resolution is necessary; conversely, the dynamics (time-resolved) studies
incorporate the femtosecond laser system, which gives good temporal resolution.

17

Figure 2.1 Illustration of the anion-photoelectron spectrometer. The anion source generates aplasma containing electrons, neutrals, anions, and cations. The anions are extracted into the
WM-TOF, where the anions are separated by their mass-to-charge ratio and focused into theanion-laser interaction region. Here, the anion of choice is overlapped with a pulse of laser
radiation, where electrons are photodetached. The ejected electrons are extracted into the VMI
setup, and a photoelectron image is measured.

Gathering and analyzing the data really depends on the type of study. The
photodetachment images are captured with the DaVis software, where they are converted into thephotoelectron spectra using a reconstruction program, BASEX.29 The number of images that are
taken depend on the signal-to-noise for each data set. Low signal can be a result of many things
but is mostly attributed to a small density of ions in the anion-laser interaction region and a low
photodetachment cross section of the anion. The noise arises from many sources. The largest
sources are from the laser radiation photoionizing oil in our vacuum chamber (when the laser

18
radiation exceeds ~4.1 eV (λ ~ 300 nm)) and from metastable ions in the ion beam autodetaching
electrons.

Figure 2.2 Illustration of converting an image to a spectrum. The VMI spectrometer measures
the image, and the raw images are compiled with the DaVis software. The 2D-raw images arereconstructed with the BASEX program, which ultimately leads to the photoelectron spectrum.

2.2 Spectrometer Setup
A full description of the spectrometer that includes the anion source, the Wiley-McLarenmass spectrometer, and the photoelectron-velocity–map-imaging (VMI) spectrometer is alsoavailable in previous publications.24,30-34 Two major changes have occurred in the Spectrometer
Setup and have not been previously recorded. The first is that the Wiley-McLaren region nolonger contains a 1.5° bend in the ion beam path. This was originally in the beam path so that19
neutrals would not enter the detection region. However, the 1.5° bend was removed because theneutrals arising from collisional detachment did not pose a major problem and to allow direct
optical alignment of the components along the beam path. We also removed a reflectron in thedetection region. Before using it again, the structure of the reflectron needs to be reinforcedsince it is hung horizontally along the ion beam path. Experiments that use the reflectron are notcurrently being performed on this apparatus, and it has been temporarily removed and stored in
the laboratory.
2.2.1 Anion Source
The anion source, as seen in Fig. 2.1 consists of a pulsed valve and electron gun. The
pulsed valve is the General Valve, series 9 from Parker Hannifin and is powered by acommercial driver, Iota 1, which is also from Parker Hannifin. The General Valve is a solenoid
valve that is made up of an armature, a Kel-F poppet, o-ring, a front spring, a back spring and afaceplate (components bought from Parker Hannifin). The material of the poppet and o-ring canbe varied. However, we have found the Kel-F poppet to be the most durable material that is also
fairly chemical resistant and the Viton o-ring to be the most affordable and fairly chemical
resistant. The faceplate can also be varied, where the size of the orifice and the shape of theorifice cone can be changed. The shape of the cone becomes crucial for changing the expansion
characteristics, such as making large clusters, colder beams, collimated beams, etc.35 Aftermaking many alterations, we have found the Parker Hannifin faceplate to be sufficient for our
experiments, where we use an 800 μm orifice opening with a 90° cone.
The electron gun is homebuilt and produces ~1000 eV electrons. Within the electron-gun
assembly, roughly ~6 A of current flows through a thoriated iridium filament (‐1000 V) to20
generate thermionic emission of electrons that are radiated in all directions. Because thefilament tip is just above the anode knife-edge, the electrons that are generated above this knifeedge are repelled away from the charged (~ -1200 V) electrode and towards the focusing andsteering optics. An einzel lens (~ -1000 V) focuses the electron beam at the valve faceplate
while the two pairs of deflectors (-100 – +100 V) adjust the vertical and horizontal alignment.
To increase the electron density and stability of the electron density at the faceplate orifice, thefaceplate has a disc magnet (Magcraft, neodymium-iron-boron, outer diameter 0.75”, innerdiameter 0.375”, thickness 0.125”) placed around the orifice.
In these experiments, the carrier gas (CO2 or Ar, 0 – 60 psig backing pressure) passes
over a solid sample of either ICN or IBr, where the vapor pressure of the room temperaturesample mixes with the carrier gas. The mixed gas is pulsed into the vacuum chamber throughthe valve, where molecules are collisionally cooled in the expansion. To prevent condensation of
the ICN or IBr, the General Valve is thermoelectrically heated to ~30 – 45 °C. The General
Valve can be pulsed at repetition rates up to 100 Hz. For the spectroscopic studies, we pulse thevalve at 80 Hz, and for the time-resolved studies, the valve is pulsed at 100 Hz. At theserepetition rates, the gas load is fairly large. The entire anion-source region is pumped by a 10”
diffusion pump to pressures of ~5x10-7 Torr without a gas load and up to ~2x10-4 Torr with a gasload (~120 – 250 μs pulse width of General Valve).
Near the orifice of the faceplate, the expanding gas interacts with the collinear beam ofelectrons from the electron gun to produce a plasma. The plasma contains a plethora of species,
such as electrons, anions, cations, neutrals, and clusters. In this region, slow secondary electrons

21
attach to neutral ICN or IBr, to yield the desired anions. Also, if the gas expansion is coldenough, then molecules condense onto the anion to form clusters of varying sizes.
2.2.2 Wiley‐McLaren–Time‐of‐Flight (WM‐TOF) Mass SpectrometerIn the anion-source region, many ions and neutral clusters are made; however, only theanions are extracted into the WM-TOF spectrometer by applying a negative voltage (~ -600 V)
to the repeller plate, in Fig. 2.1. The repeller plate is pulsed at the repetition rate of the valve but
is delayed from the valve pulse, such that the onset and duration of the repeller-plate pulse
maximizes the ion signal in the anion-laser interaction region.
The anions are focused into the anion-laser interaction region with the WM-TOF andadditional ion optics. The WM-TOF is a dual stage accelerator that focuses the ion beam along
the z coordinate (Fig. 2.1), compensating for the initial spatial spread within the ion packet.36
The first acceleration occurs between the repeller plate and the first plate in the acceleration
stack, which is held at earth ground, to accelerate the anions to ~600 eV. The second
acceleration occurs in the stack, which adds an additional ~2300 eV, to give the anions a total of~2900 eV of kinetic energy. After the ions are accelerated, the anions are guided by two sets ofdeflectors (variable voltages) and focused along the x and y coordinates by the einzel lens(~+1000 V). In order to avoid floating the detection region at ~2300 V, we use a pulsed
potential switch, which abruptly (~20 ns) re-references the ions from 2300 V to earth ground as
they pass through the potential switch. Finally there is a last set of horizontal deflectors (-10 –+10 V), which gives a small correction to the ion trajectory prior to the anion-laser interaction
region. When the detection region is closed off and the gas is not being pulsed, the WM-TOF
region is kept at ~5x10-8 Torr by two diffusion pumps (6” and 4”). When the experiment is22
running (gate valve to the detection region is open and the gas is being pulsed), the pressure in
the WM-TOF region rises to ~1x10-7 Torr.
2.2.3 Photoelectron‐velocity–map‐imaging (VMI) SpectrometerAs can be seen in Fig. 2.1, the anion-laser interaction occurs within the VMI
spectrometer to produce a “cloud” of photodetached electrons. The VMI spectrometer consistsof a three-element electrostatic lens, a field-free flight region, and a spatially sensitive electron
detector.37-39 Figure 2.2 shows a close-up of the VMI spectrometer. The lens has potentials
arranged to give a velocity focusing of the photoelectrons over an extended volume. The threeelements are separated by 1”, and the second and third elements have a 1” inner diameter hole, as
is depicted in Fig. 2.2. The anion-laser interaction region is between the first two elements,
where photodetached electrons are ejected in all directions. The electron cloud is repelled
through the lens before entering the field-free flight tube, where it continues to expand before
striking the detector. The flight tube is 15-cm long, magnetically shielded, and held at thevoltage of the third lens element. To maintain a field-free region for the photodetachedelectrons, the front plate of the detector is also held at the same voltage as the third element in
the lens assembly and the flight tube.
The detector is comprised of a dual set of 40-mm imaging-quality microchannel plates ina chevron design (Burle, Inc.), a P47 phosphor screen (Burle, Inc.), and a cooled charge-coupleddevice (CCD) camera (LaVision) that captures the 2D projection of the 3D-photoelectron
velocity distribution. The microchannel plates have ~106 gain when they are operated at theirmaximum, which corresponds to 1100 V across each plate. After exiting the microchannel
plates, the electrons are attracted to the phosphor screen, which is held at an additional +3000 V23
above the back end of the plates. The fluorescence of the P47 screen (~400 nm) is captured by
the CCD camera. To reduce electrical noise within the camera, it is cooled to -11°C. The
captured image (1280 x 1024 pixels) is transferred to the computer through a PCI-Interface
Board and processed by the DaVis software.
The voltages on the focusing lens (and, therefore, flight tube and detector) are chosensuch that the photodetached electrons that have the same velocity (magnitude and direction)
impinge onto the detector at the same spot. This is relatively straightforward, if thephotodetached electrons originate from a point source. However, the anion-laser interaction
region is a finite volume (around 2x2x2 mm) and requires the three-element lensing setup.
Discovering this set of conditions is the key feature of the famous VMI spectrometer.37 For our
setup, the voltages on the first and third elements are close to a -1:3 ratio. The voltage on thefirst element is negative to repel the electrons, and the photodetached electrons are extracted
through the other two elements, where the middle element is held at earth ground. Depending on
the kinetic energy of the electrons that we want to measure, the voltages are varied. If theelectrons of interest have a small kinetic energy, then the voltages are set low to allow theelectron cloud to expand and fill the detector; conversely, if we want to measure electrons with alarge kinetic energy, then the electron cloud must be extracted with higher voltages so thatphotoelectron “cloud” does not expand past the size of the detector. To determine the voltages
that are applied to the VMI spectrometer elements, we focus the images of known atomic
transitions of anions, such as I⁻ and Br⁻, to obtain the narrowest features on the detector.
Within the VMI spectrometer, the first element in the lens and the microchannel plates
are individually pulsed. The first element in the electrostatic lens is pulsed on for 300 ns. The

24
pulsing of the lens produces electrical fluctuations, “ringing”, in the spectrometer at early times.
Therefore, the first element of the lens is on and stable by the time that the laser interacts withthe anion packet and is kept on until the photodetached electrons are through the field-free flighttube. However, the “on time” of the first element prior to the anion-laser interaction isminimized so that the charged element negligibly perturbs the ion-beam trajectories. The
microchannel plates are pulsed to minimize background signal. The plates are pulsed on for
5 μs, and the timing of the anion-laser interaction is centered on the pulse. When the
microchannel plates are pulsed on, there is ~2000 V difference across the two plates, and when
the pulse is absent, there is ~1350 V difference across the plates. In the off mode, the gain acrossthe microchannel plates is drastically reduced and there is minimal noise from backgroundelectrons.
The pressure in the detection region is kept low to reduce background photoelectrons
from oil. Two turbo pumps (Balzers TPU 240: 230 L/s and Pfeiffer Vacuum HiPace 700:
685 L/s), which are backed by an Alcatel mechanical pump, maintain the detection region at~3x10-9 Torr when gases are not flowing. With a typical gas load, the pressure in the detection
region rises to ~5x10-9 Torr. To reduce external magnetic fields, the VMI spectrometer is
enclosed by four cylindrical layers of μ-metal. The electrostatic lens has an additional μ-metal
cup around the focusing lens. Holes are cut into the μ-metal to allow the ion and laser beams topass through the interaction region.
2.3 Laser Setups
In both the spectroscopic and dynamics investigations, the laser propagation, massseparated anion beam, and extracted photoelectron directions are mutually perpendicular with the25laser light polarized parallel to the detector plane. The laser radiation is softly focused into theanion-laser interaction region and kept at low power density to minimize two-photon excitation
within one laser pulse and space-charge effects; thus the photodetachment volume is roughly
2x2x2 mm. The polarization (horizontal) of the laser light needs to be parallel to the detector
face for symmetry reasons that allow the reconstruction of the measured image, which will be
discussed in more detail later. If the polarization of the laser beam is vertical and needs to berotated, then a periscope setup rotates the polarization by having two mirrors positioned such thatthe axes normal to the mirror surfaces are perpendicular. If the light does not need to be rotatedthen a periscope is used where the two mirror surfaces are parallel to each other. In either case,the periscope setup is essential for adjusting the laser beams to the correct height of the vacuumchamber entrance.
2.3.1 Nanosecond Laser Setup
The tunable nanosecond laser system has been described in detail before and only an
overview will be given here.33,34 The nanosecond laser system, Fig. 2.3, is used for the
spectroscopic investigations presented in Chapters III and V – VII. We use a commercial
Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet, Nd:Y3Al5O12) Coherent Infinity laser.
As Coherent discontinued this laser and support of it, Appendix A provides instructions formaking new spatial filters and where to order the parts. The spatial filter is an important part ofthe laser system that “cleans up” the mode quality of the beam.

26

Figure 2.3 Schematic for the nanosecond laser system. Nd:YAG is the abbreviation forneodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet, Nd:Y3Al5O12, laser. SHG, THG, and OPO areacronyms for second harmonic generation, third harmonic generation, and optical parametricoscillator, respectively. PDL-1 stands for pulsed dye laser version 1. Also, the radiation path iscolor coded to correspond to the energy of the radiation.

The fundamental output of the Infinity is 1064-nm radiation. The laser generates pulsesthat are ~3-ns wide in time and < 8-cm-1 wide in energy. The laser can be pulsed up to 100 Hz;
however, all the experiments that use the nanosecond laser system are operated at 80 Hz. The
laser is externally triggered by an internally triggered SRS (Stanford Research Systems, model
DG535) four channel digital delay/pulse generator, which provides timing for the voltage pulses
used by the spectrometer as well. Appendix B shows the SRS settings for the nanosecond
experiments.
Within the Infinity housing, there are many component configurations that are utilized
depending on the light that is needed. The 1064-nm radiation is doubled with a type I BBO (βbarium borate) crystal (SHG: second harmonic generation) to generate 532-nm light. The 1064and 532-nm radiation is combined in a THG (third harmonic generation) crystal, which is also
type I BBO material, to produce 355-nm light. Because the THG crystal is type I, the 1064- and532-nm light must have the same polarization; therefore, a λ/2-waveplate is placed in the beam

27
path between the SHG and THG crystal to rotate the 1064-nm polarization. The 532-nm
polarization could be rotated instead, but rotation of the 1064-nm polarization was chosen by
Coherent. By detuning the THG crystal, 532-nm light can be directed out of the Infinity housing
and used as the photodetachment radiation or to pump the dye laser. The 355 nm-light can also
be directed out of the Infinity housing to use in the experiment or pump the optical parametricoscillator (OPO). The OPO consists of a buildup cavity and type I BBO crystal, where signal(410 – 680 nm) and idler (740 – 2200 nm) light is generated. The OPO light is directly used forthe experiment or doubled with a Type I BBO crystal inside the Infinity housing. For doubling
410 – 470 nm radiation, we use a Type I BBO crystal that is external to the Infinity housing
because the internal SHG housing is too restrictive and does not allow the crystal to be rotated to
the necessary angle. This setup allows for great tunability in the UV – IR electromagnetic region
except in the wavelength range of 710 nm (and 355 nm) where there is degeneracy in the signal
and idler wavelengths of the OPO. The signal and idler light near the degeneracy has anincreased bandwidth compared to the rest of the UV – IR region; therefore, we use the dye laser
to access this region of the spectrum to obtain a narrower linewidth.
The PDL-1 (pulsed dye laser, version 1) is from Quanta-Ray. The dye laser has a very
simple design, as can be seen in Fig. 2.4. This version contains three dye cells: an oscillator,
preamplifier, and amplifier dye cell. The PDL-1 can be arranged for the amplifier cell to be side
pumped (dotted box) or end pumped. The PDL-1 can also be configured to be pumped with 532or 355-nm radiation. However, pumping with 532-nm radiation sufficiently covers the neardegeneracy region of the OPO and produces radiation that has a narrow bandwidth (< 8 cm-1).
For the experiments reported in this thesis, the ~710-nm radiation is not directly used, but
tunable UV light (around 355-nm radiation) is used. Therefore, we employ various mixtures of28
DCM, LDS 698, and LDS 722 dyes to produce narrow, tunable radiation that is doubled with an
SHG crystal to cover the spectral range between 315 and 370 nm.

Figure 2.4 Schematic of the tunable dye laser, PDL-1. The PDL-1 is pumped by 532-nm
radiation, which is outputted from the Infinity laser. BS, dc, SHG, osc, amp, and preamp are
abbreviations for beam splitter, dye cell, second harmonic generation, oscillator, amplifier, andpreamplifier, respectively. Also, the radiation path is color coded to correspond with the energyof the light. The dotted box can be used for side-pumping or can be removed to end pump the
amplifier dye cell.

2.3.2 Femtosecond Laser Setup
The femtosecond laser system provides short pulses suitable for studies of dynamics that
occur on the 200 fs – 100 ps time scale. Figure 2.5 shows a schematic layout of the femtosecond
laser system and the respective radiation characteristics for each component. This section
provides an overview and a more thorough description of the femtosecond laser system can befound in Todd Sanford’s thesis.33 Unlike the nanosecond studies, the femtosecond laser system
must run on its own internal timing and triggers the rest of the experiment by externallytriggering the SRS boxes at 100 Hz. In other words, the rest of the experiment is slaved to thismaster timing. The laser system pulses at 400 Hz, but the General Valve cannot be run at that

29high of a repetition rate, so the rate of the valve is reduced to 100 Hz. Appendix C contains thetimings and settings for the SRS boxes when a time-resolved experiment is being run.

Figure 2.5 Schematic for femtosecond laser system. The SHG, BS, and CW stand for second
harmonic generation, beam splitter, and continuous wave. The color coding of the beam pathreflects the energy of the light.

The Verdi, which is a diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 (neodymium-doped yttrium
orthovanadate) laser, pumps the MIRA, a mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator, to generate theseed pulse. After the MIRA, a photodiode detects the leakage of the seed pulse from the first
turning mirror, and this signal is used to trigger the Pockels cell within the Titan. The seed pulse
is guided into the Titan, where it is stretched before amplification (~200 ps). The pump light for
the Titan comes from the Falcon laser. This Q-switched laser sends the 527-nm pulse, whichcomes from doubling the fundamental output of a Nd:YLF (neodymium-doped yttrium lithium
fluoride) laser, to pump the amplification medium in the Titan. The majority of the pump light is30
used to pump the second amplification medium, and the residual light that is transmitted througha reflective mirror is used to pump the first amplification medium.
The amplification stage is a dual process: a regenerative amplifier and a multipass
amplifier. The seed pulse passes through a Medox Pockels cell. The Pockels cell serves many
purposes. It reduces the repetition rate of the seed pulse from 76 MHz to 400 Hz. It injects a
selected seed pulse from the 76-MHz train into the regenerative amplifier at the 400-Hz
repetition rate since it is located within the regenerative amplifier cavity. And, it provides thetrigger for the Falcon Q-switch and the rest of the experiment (SRS boxes). The regenerative
amplification cavity contains a Ti:sapphire crystal, which is pumped by a small amount of theFalcon output at 400 Hz. The seed pulse within the regenerative amplifier makes many roundtrips before being ejected by the Pockels cell. A photodiode monitors the leakage from an end
mirror of the cavity, and the signal is read by an oscilloscope. Therefore, we can watch thebuildup and decide the time when the pulse should begin building up and when it should beejected. The built up pulse then enters a second amplification process: a multipass amplifier.
This amplifier also contains a Ti:sapphire crystal, which is pumped by the majority of the Falcon
output at 400 Hz. The seed pulse makes two passes through the amplification medium and thenenters a grating compressor, which reduces the width of the pulses to ~120 fs. To compress thepulses of the Titan output, we adjust two gratings within the compression region to minimize thepulse width by using an autocorrelator (INRAD, model 5-14BX).
The 788-nm compressed pulse then exits the Titan and must be separated into theappropriate legs for the pump-probe experiments, which is done with a 50:50 beam splitter. For
these experiments, the pump pulse is either the 788-nm light (1.5 mJ) or the doubled light from31
the Titan, 394 nm (0.5 mJ). The doubled light is generated by passing the 788-nm light througha Type I BBO crystal. The pump pulse is put onto a computerized Parker delay stage (~1.3 fs
per step), which is controlled by a LabView program, to adjust the pump-probe delay time (t).
The pump light is then steered towards the chamber and recombines with the probe pulse prior toentering the chamber. For these experiments, the probe pulse must be UV radiation (~310 nm)
that we generate by pumping the TOPAS (Light Conversion Ltd. by Quantronix) with the otherhalf of the 788-nm light. The TOPAS contains a Type II BBO crystal, which requires threepasses of the 788-nm radiation through the crystal. The first pass creates a continuum
generation, which seeds the second pass. The second pass is the preamplifier pass, and thesecond pass outputs the fundamental, signal, and idler radiation. For the third pass, the signal
radiation seeds the amplification medium while the 788-nm radiation pumps it, which outputs thefundamental, signal, and idler radiation. In order to generate the desired UV light (30 – 40 μJ),
the signal of the TOPAS is quadrupled by two consecutive type I BBO crystals. The UV light isthen directed towards the chamber, where it recombines with the pump pulse.
The recombined pump and probe pulses must be overlapped in space at a known t. To
calibrate t, the temporal overlap (t = 0) at the anion-laser interaction region is determined byfinding t = 0 outside the vacuum chamber, where a piece of glass identical to the vacuum
chamber window is used. After the pump and probe pulses pass through the piece of glass, they
combine in a Type I BBO crystal and pass onto a grating, which separates the different energiesof the light. The delay stage is adjusted to generate UV light, which comes from sum frequency
generation (SFG) of the pump and probe pulse. The SFG light is a clear signal of temporal
overlap of the pump and probe pulses and is detected with a photodiode, which transfers thesignal to a LabView program. The signal is mapped out to produce a Gaussian shape, and the32center of the Gaussian corresponds to t = 0. The cross-correlation of the two pulses gives a full
width of half maximum of ~300 fs.
2.4 Data Analysis
Figure 2.2 shows an overview of how a photoelectron spectrum is generated from the raw
VMI spectrometer image that is obtained by the CCD camera, which is also described inprevious theses.33,34 The raw image is directly related to the velocity distribution of thephotoelectrons and is transferred from the CCD camera to the computer, where the raw images
are handled by the DaVis software. Within the DaVis software, the raw images are summed,
subtracted, and/or averaged. Since these raw images are 2D projections of the initial 3D
photoelectron distributions, they need to be reconstructed into the original 3D distributions toyield the photoelectron spectra. The BASEX software does this reconstruction to give aspectrum as a function of pixel, which is directly related to speed. The spectra are thenconverted from speed space to energy space. Analyzing the spectra could be done in most data
analysis programs and Igor is used for all of the data analysis presented in this thesis. Also, wechoose to make the background corrections in Igor rather than in the DaVis software because ofover-subtraction issues which will be discussed later.
2.4.1 DaVis
The DaVis software is interfaced with the CCD camera and controls the exposure time
per image. The exposure time can range from 1 ms to 1x106 ms (16.67 min). There are twomodes of camera operation: conventional (analog) or event counting (digital) mode. The event
counting mode gives better experimental resolution and requires a longer time for datacollection; however, this mode cannot handle a significant background of photoelectrons. Both

33
collection modes are described but the majority of the spectra that are shown in this thesis do notbenefit from higher resolution or have too large of a background that event counting is no longer
an effective collection mode; therefore, all of the spectra are taken with the conventional mode
unless otherwise specified.
For the conventional mode, the number of counts per pixel per image is directly collectedby the DaVis software. At long exposure times, the intensity per pixel can become saturated; atshort exposure times, the collection process is no longer efficient because of the processing time
per image and the amount of noise that is introduced. Therefore, we select an exposure time thatis well below the saturation limit (~3000 counts can saturate a pixel). Setting the exposure timedepends on the system being studied. For example, systems that require high-energy photons(Ephoton > 4.1 eV) produce many background electrons from ionization of oil molecules, and theexposure time must be limited to avoid saturation. However, the DaVis software is equippedwith a program (Sequencing/Summing) that will internally sum or average the images. Shorter
exposure times can be consecutively taken and averaged internally; this saves time because it is
not necessary to save and average the individual images. The conventional mode leads to a
FWHM/KE (full width at half maximum/kinetic energy) of ~5%.
For better experimental resolution (FWHM/KE ~ 3 – 4%), the data can be obtained in theevent counting mode. DaVis has a macro (Andre) that replaces a spot on the image, which is afew pixels by a few pixels, with a pixel in the middle of the spot with intensity “1” and theremainder of the pixels for that spot are assigned “0”. A threshold can be set in the macro which
discriminates between signal and background spots, assigning the center of a spot with highenough intensity as “1” while all other spots are assigned “0”. The exposure time for the camera

34
should be set low so that two counts do not appear at the same place on the detector. This would
lead to undercounting events because the event would only be assigned an intensity of “1” andnot “2”. Typically, the signal images are taken in event counting mode and the backgroundimages are taken in the conventional mode discussed earlier. Event counting is more time
consuming; therefore, the macro is only used if the measurement is close to the experimental
resolution and event counting would improve the resolution of the measured features. Also, if
the photon energy is high (Ephoton > 4.1 eV), it can become very difficult to acquire the data in theevent counting mode because the counts are too high per exposure.
In either mode, it is often best to alternate between signal and background images. For aspectroscopic study, usually only the signal (anion and laser pulses overlapped in time) andbackground (anion and laser pulses mismatched in time) images need to be taken. The timeresolved studies require more background correction because both the pump and probe pulses
can generate one-photon signal in addition to background electrons. Therefore, the backgroundsubtraction is more complicated and must be evaluated for each time-resolved study.
Alternating between signal and background images accounts for long-term drifting in the ion
signal and/or laser power. Typically every one to five minutes, we alternate between signal andbackground images. At the end of a data set, the signal images are averaged into one image andthe same occurs with the background images. If we are smart in naming the individual image
files, the Batch Processing program within the DaVis software will average all the files for us.
By naming the signal (background) images as ‘signalX’ (‘backgroundX’), where X = 1, 2, 3…,
we can set the Batch Processing program to average as many of the ‘signal’ (‘background’)images as desired, as long as the file name is the same and the name is terminated by a number.
If the background counts are low compared to the signal counts, then less averaging has to be35
done for the background images compared to the signal images. Conversely, if the backgroundcounts are comparable to or larger than the signal counts, then both images must be averaged thesame amount of time.
In order to perform the reconstruction of the image, the center of the image must be
determined. BASEX has a built-in program that finds the center, but we have found this to give
the wrong centers due to noisy images, an asymmetric gain profile across the detector, and theedge of the detector appearing in the image. To date, the most accurate way is manuallychoosing the center. In the DaVis software, we can place a circle on the image and center it. If
the signal image has a strong background, then we will subtract the background image from thesignal image prior to finding the center of the image. However, both the signal and backgroundimages are individually reconstructed by the BASEX program with the appropriate center.
2.4.2 BASEX Reconstruction
The measured image is the projection of the 3D photoelectron cloud collapsing onto the2D detector, which is shown as the image on the bottom left of Fig. 2.2. Electrons that have ahigher speed (v2 in Fig. 2.2) move further away from the center then slower electrons (v1 in Fig.
2.2). If the polarization of the laser radiation is parallel to the detector face, then the ejected
electrons have a cylindrical symmetry about the polarization axis; the VMI spectrometer in Fig.
2.2 shows a pictorial representation of this cylindrical symmetry. There are many approaches forreconstructing the original 3D images.39 If there is an axis of cylindrical symmetry, whichphotoelectron spectroscopy inherently has, the inverse Abel transform is typically used. One of
the most common techniques for calculating the inverse Abel transform is the Fourier-Hankel
technique;40 however, this method does a point by point reconstruction and does not adequately

36
handle noisy images or sharp features.29,39 Another technique for calculating the inverse Abeltransform is BASEX (BAsis Set EXpansion), which fits the entire spectrum at once and is able tomore effectively handle residual noise.29,39 Due to the type of data that we collect, the BASEX
software is used for all of the data presented in this thesis.
The BASEX software expands the 2D projection in a basis set of functions that are wellbehaved, Gaussian-like functions.29 The linear combination of these functions reconstructs the3D image, where the coefficients are the same as those for the projected image. The center slice
through the reconstructed 3D image is shown in Fig. 2.2. The intensity of the reconstructed 3D
image is integrated over all angles for all values of v to obtain the photoelectron intensity as afunction of the electrons’ speed. As long as the symmetry of the photodetached electrons
follows that depicted in Fig. 2.2, then the BASEX software can also generate the β values,
related to the angular distribution of the photodetached electrons, as a function of the electrons’
speed. For the studies presented in this thesis, the β values were always considered but did notplay a part in the analysis because the measured β values were either too noisy or did not clearly
differentiate between neutral electronic states to give useful conclusions.
2.4.3 Photoelectron Spectrum
The spectra generated from the BASEX software have the photoelectron intensity plotted
as a function of pixel, which is directly related to the speed of the electrons. However, it is notcommon to plot the photoelectron spectra as a function of speed but rather as a function ofenergy. The kinetic energy, KE, is related to the speed, v, by,Eqn. 2.1

37
where m is the mass of the electron. The photoelectron intensity in speed and energy space are
related by⁄,

Eqn. 2.2

where I is the photoelectron intensity in energy (IKE) or speed (Iv) space. Upon solving andsimplifying Eqn. 2.2, we obtain the Jacobian correction for the photoelectron intensity:⁄,

Eqn. 2.3

where the mass is constant making IKE proportional to Iv/v. Therefore, the photoelectron
intensity is divided by the pixel (which is directly related to v) to obtain the photoelectron spectra
as a function of the electron kinetic energy, eKE. The eKE scale is calibrated with an atomic
image, where the electron binding energy (eBE) and therefore eKE are known. The spectra areconverted from eKE to eBE,
eBE = hv – eKE,

Eqn. 2.4

making the spectra independent of the photon energy used. Most of the spectra will be reported
as a function of eBE, except for Chapter VI where the spectra are plotted as a function of eKE.
The subtraction of the signal from the background is performed in Igor (or another data
analysis program) and not within the DaVis software. The main reason to avoid subtraction
within the DaVis software is that an over subtraction gives negative signal, and the BASEX
program processes this negative signal as “zero”. For the atomic calibration images, where thesignal is significantly large compared to the background, then the subtraction is most efficient in
the DaVis software; however, for all other situations it is best to do the subtraction in a data

38
analysis program. Another benefit to doing the subtraction after the reconstruction is that thebackground subtraction is not always one-to-one. This is especially true when there is a large
background of electrons from photoionization of oil.
2.5 Conclusion
The experimental setup and data analysis must be adjusted slightly for each chemical system that
we study, and the specifics for each chemical system are discussed in their respective chapters.
The general layout for the spectrometer and laser systems is discussed, where the spectroscopic
investigations use the nanosecond laser systems (Chapters III and V – VII) and the time-resolved
studies use the femtosecond laser system (Chapter IV). The anions are generated and then mass
separated in a WM-TOF spectrometer. The anions of interest and the laser pulse interact in the
VMI spectrometer to photodetach electrons. The VMI spectrometer collects the projected-2D
image, and the DaVis software processes the raw image. The raw image is reconstructed using
the BASEX software to generate the photoelectron spectrum as a function of electron speed.
This spectrum is then converted from speed to energy space to generate the photoelectron
spectrum as a function of energy.

39

Chapter III: Photoelectron Spectroscopy of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3

3.1 Motivation
Many important processes occur in solution, such as solvation of electrolytes and acidbase chemistry.14,41 However, these systems can be difficult to study on a microscopic scalebecause of the complexity introduced by the solvent. For example, is the solvent merely acting
as a heat bath for a reaction, or is it itself a participant in the reaction? From a theoreticalstandpoint, it is also not trivial to model a process in the condensed phase. It is preferable for themodeled system to have a controlled number of components. If the system of interest is smaller,
then theoretical calculations and modeling become a much more manageable feat.
One approach to simplify condensed phase processes is to study them in the gas phase.
The number of solute and solvent molecules is drastically reduced to yield gas-phase clusters,
which contain one solute molecule and varying number of solvent molecules.15,42 For neutralclusters in the gas phase, this simplification still proves difficult because it is not trivial toseparate the cluster sizes. However, in a charged cluster (anion or cation) in the gas phase, thecluster sizes can be separated by mass-to-charge in a time-of-flight experiment. In this setup, theeffects of sequential solvation to the charged solute are studied, such as the binding strength of
the solvent to the solute and the amount of perturbation that the solvent introduces to the solute.
For example, if the solvent interacts strongly, then the electronic character of the solute will begreatly disrupted. Furthermore, the properties of smaller clusters are easier to calculate withquantum methods. For both theory and experiment, studying clusters is a good approach tounderstand the fundamental processes that occur in the condensed phase.

40
The solvation of IBr⁻ with CO2 has been previously studied by our group.25,30,43,44 Thesestudies have shown that CO2 solvation greatly affects the dissociation dynamics of IBr⁻, andIBr⁻(CO2)n clusters may be a good model for studying solvation. Thompson et al. has performed
calculations on IBr⁻, where the dissociation energy (0.948 eV), vibrational frequency (118 cm-1),
and equilibrium bond (I–Br) length (3.05 Å) of the ground state of the anion as well as theelectron affinity (2.494 eV) of IBr have been calculated.43,45 In addition to these calculations on
the bare anion, the calculations on the IBr⁻(CO2)n clusters reveal that the minimum energy
configuration places the first three CO2 molecules around the waist of the I–Br, and the CO2
molecules are weakly bound to the anion, ~200 meV. The IBr–CO2 binding energy has been
estimated from photodissociation studies from our group and is consistent withcalculations.30,43,44 However, the spectroscopy of the anion ground state has not been studied,and the photodissociation experiments only give an average CO2 binding energy. Photoelectron
spectroscopy is one technique that could further confirm the theoretical values.
By studying the photoelectron spectroscopy of the anion cluster, we have all of theadvantages of mass selection and can learn about both the anion and neutral cluster.
Photoelectron spectroscopy of IBr⁻(CO2)n clusters measures the transitions between the anion
and neutral molecules at the equilibrium geometry of the anion ground state. The geometry
change between the ground states of the anion and neutral IBr are expected to be significant.
Assuming that the CO2 minimally perturbs the solute, the ground states of the anion and neutral
IBr(CO2)n clusters differ by a * electron, which is strongly antibonding. This large geometry
change between the ground states agrees with the current literature values, where the calculatedanion bond length (RI–Br = 3.05 Å) is longer than the experimentally determined bond length forneutral IBr (RI–Br = 2.47 Å).43,45-47 Therefore, we will rely on transitions to the first two excited41
states of IBr (RI–Br ≈ 2.85 Å) to analyze the photoelectron spectrum of IBr⁻ because the excitedstates of IBr will have better v″ = 0 → v′ = 0 overlap with the ground vibrational state of IBr⁻.
Patchkovskii has calculated the 23 lowest energy electronic states of IBr.48 The threelowest energy states are bound: the ground electronic state (X̃ 1+) and the first two excited states(32 and 31). There is negligible Franck-Condon overlap between the 1+ (v = 0) and the 32
and 31 (v = 0) states due to the I–Br bond lengthening of the 3 states. Therefore,
experimentalists used techniques other than ground-state absorption spectroscopy to investigate
the first two excited states of IBr, such as observing emission from ion-pair states to the 3
states, absorption of the 3 states to higher lying states, high-resolution spectroscopy of the X̃
1 + to 31 state (where the v″ = 0 → v′ = 6 – 29 was probed).46,49-52 These studies yield many of

the 3 spectroscopic parameters of IBr, which will be used for interpretation of the IBr⁻
photoelectron spectrum.
We present the photoelectron spectrum of IBr⁻, which contains transitions to the groundstate (X̃ 1+) and the first two excited states (32 and 31) of IBr. There is a large equilibrium(I–Br) bond length change between the anion ground state and neutral ground state, which
precludes the direct observation of the v″ = 0 → v′ = 0 transition. However, the vibrational
resolution in the excited states leads to a much more accurate value for the EA(IBr), where a
spread exists in the current EA values, 1.6 – 2.7 eV.47,53,54 In addition, many spectroscopic
parameters of the anion are determined by fitting the transitions of the 3 states in thephotoelectron spectrum, such as the equilibrium bond length (Re), the vibrational frequency (ωe),
and the anharmonicity (ωexe) of IBr⁻. Using a thermochemical cycle, we determine thedissociation energy (D0) of the anion ground state. In addition to the photoelectron spectra of42
IBr⁻, the IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 1 – 3, spectra are measured. The CO2 solvation minimally perturbs theelectronic character of the IBr⁻, which is concluded from the consistent shift in the spectralfeatures as n increases. However, the CO2 congests the photoelectron spectrum, which arises
from the additional degrees of freedom introduced by the solvent. From the solvated spectra, weconclude the EA of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 1 – 3.
3.2 Experimental Methods
Most of the experimental methods and corresponding references can be found in Chapter
II. A thorough description of the anion source, Wiley-McLaren–Time-of-Flight (WM-TOF)
mass spectrometer, and photoelectron spectrometer is provided in section 2.2. The data analysis
is detailed in section 2.4. Finally, section 2.3.1 presents the nanosecond laser system used inthese studies. The remainder of this section includes details specific to this study that are notalready addressed in Chapter II.24
We generate IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3, by flowing 20 psig of CO2 gas (99.8%, Scott
Specialty Gases, Inc.) over a solid sample of IBr (98%, Sigma Aldrich). The gas expands into
the source chamber through a heated (~45 °C), pulsed General Valve nozzle (0.8-mm orifice,series 9, Parker Hannifin) at 80 Hz. The 1-kV beam of electrons interacts with the gas pulse to
produce secondary electrons. These electrons attach to the IBr to yield IBr⁻, and CO2 molecules
collide and eventually bind to the cooled IBr⁻. The anions are then extracted into the WM-TOF
mass spectrometer, which spatially focuses the mass-selected IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3, into theanion-laser interaction region. Most of the images are taken in the conventional (long exposure)camera operation mode. The images that measure transitions to the 3 states are taken in theevent counting mode, which is described in section 2.4.1. This experimental setup produces

43
essentially a 50:50 distribution of I79Br⁻:I81Br⁻ in both the bare and clustered anions, which is
expected from the natural abundance of bromine. All the data in this chapter were taken with
I79Br⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3, but we expect identical data with the 81Br isotope.
In the anion-laser interaction region, the photodetachment radiation, 260 – 300 nm, arises
from doubling the OPO signal, which is pumped by the third harmonic of a pulsed Nd:YAG
laser. We use nanosecond laser pulses that have energies between 50 and 150 μJ/pulse tointeract with the mass-selected anion, where the laser light is softly focused into the anion-laserinteraction region. The photoelectron spectrometer is calibrated and focused with thephotodetachment spectra of I⁻ and Br⁻, where the EA and spin orbit splitting are well known forboth neutral species, I and Br.2,55 The production of I⁻ and Br⁻ anions coincides with the
production of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3.
3.3 Photoelectron Spectroscopy of IBr⁻
3.3.1 Results
Because IBr⁻ has a similar electronic configuration to that of I2⁻, the IBr⁻ and I2⁻
photoelectron spectra should be similar.17,56 The valence electronic configuration for groundstate dihalides (X̃ 2+) is 24*4*1, where the highest energy electron resides in a strongly
antibonding orbital. The removal of this * electron yields the ground state dihalogen (X̃ 1+)with a much shorter bond. With this large change in bond length, the greatest Franck-Condon
overlap should be between the anion 2+ ground vibrational state, v″ = 0, and the vibrationallyexcited ground state IBr (X̃ 1+), v′ = high. Thus, one anticipates negligible Franck-Condon
intensity from the v″ = 0 → v′ = 0 transition.

44
The removal of the second highest energy electron from the * orbital generates theexcited 3 states. The geometry change between the anion ground state and the bound 3 statesis less drastic since the * orbital has less antibonding character than the * orbital.
Consequently, one would expect better overlap between the anion 2+ ground vibrational state,v″ = 0, and the neutral 3ground vibrational states, v′ = 0. The inset of Fig. 3.1 shows the bondshortening of the neutral states relative to the anion ground state. Thompson et al. calculate theground electronic state of IBr⁻, and Patchkovskii calculates the potential energy curves for theneutral electronic states of IBr.43,48 These potential energy curves of IBr and IBr⁻ along with thevertical arrow highlight the parts of the neutral electronic states that will be accessed byphotoelectron spectroscopy of IBr⁻. To a first approximation, transitions to the ground state (X̃1 + ) should yield a broad feature, while transitions to the 3 states should result in narrower

features in the spectrum similar to the spectrum of I2⁻.17,56

45

Figure 3.1 Photoelectron Spectrum of IBr⁻ (λ = 300 nm). The broad peak at 3.35 eVcorresponds to high-lying vibrational levels of the ground electronic state, X̃ 1+. The groundstate origin is not observed and lies ~1 eV lower in binding energy. The next two sharp features
are the first two excited states of IBr (32 and 31). The inset shows the calculated potential
energy curves of the anion (X̃ 2+) ground electronic state as well as the ground electronic state(X̃ 1+) and the first two excited electronic states of neutral IBr (32 and 31).

The photoelectron spectrum (λ = 300 nm) of IBr⁻, shown in Fig. 3.1, matches our
expectations. The spectrum is plotted as a function of electron binding energy. There are three
features in the spectrum. As expected, the broad, low-energy feature results from transitions to
the ground state of IBr, and the sharper features at higher energy correspond to transitions to thefirst two excited states of IBr, 32 and 31. The broad peak at a vertical detachment energy(VDE) of 3.35 eV does not contain the v″ = 0 → v′ = 0 transition but, instead, is ~ 250 meVwide with some structure near the VDE. The two higher energy features at VDEs = 3.95 and4.05 eV, which are transitions to the 32 and 31 states, respectively, have good vibrational
resolution.

46
3.3.2 Discussion
Even though IBr has attracted considerable attention, there still remains some ambiguityin the EA of IBr.47,53,54 The analyzed photoelectron spectrum of IBr⁻ yields a much moreaccurate value for the EA(IBr). In addition, the analysis determines the dissociation energy (D0),vibrational frequency (ωe), and anharmonicity (ωexe) of the anion as well as the change in
geometry between the anion and neutral (Re). From the spectrum, the ground state featureappears to have some structure near the VDE. Analysis of the structure, however, would not be
definitive since we are accessing very high-lying vibrational states of the ground electronic state.
The VDE of the ground-state feature corresponds to ~ 30 quanta in the I–Br stretch, which isdetermined from the known vibrational frequency and anharmonicity of IBr.46,50,52,57,58 Since anaccurate identification of the individual vibrational states cannot be determined, we do notdiscuss the ground-state structure further.
Instead, the first two excited states of IBr are used to determine the spectroscopic
constants because these states have prominent peaks owing to good vibrational resolution and we
directly measure the v″ = 0 → v′ = 0 transitions. Figure 3.2 shows the vibrational progressionsof the two excited electronic states, where the black trace is the experimental data. Transitions to
the 32 state have spectral peaks that are spaced by 18 meV, which is consistent with theliterature value for the 32 I–Br stretch frequency (18.30 meV).49,51 Similarly, the vibrational
spacing measured for transitions to the 31 state is 17 meV, matching nicely with the previously
published values for the 31 state (16.7 meV).46,50,52 In Fig. 3.2, the label 1 identifies the origin
transition for each electronic state. (The number “1” denotes the vibrational normal mode, which
for a diatomic molecule is uniquely the stretching mode. The superscript is the vibrational

47
quantum number of the neutral [v′], and the subscript is the vibrational quantum number of theanion [v″]). The spacing between the known energies of the ground vibrational states of the 32
and 31 states, 115 meV, concurs with the spacing between the two peaks marked with
1 .46,49,50,52 Also, the peaks that reside lower in binding energy than the 32 origin peak have a
different spacing. As seen in the inset of Fig. 3.2, the dashed, blue trace results from a
progression of Gaussian peaks spaced by 16.6 meV. This inset focuses on transitions to the 32state that are from hot bands of the anion, v″ = 1, 2, or 3 → v′ = 0; the spacing of the hot bandfeatures agrees with the calculated vibrational frequency of the anion, 118 cm-1.45

Figure 3.2 Photoelectron Spectrum of IBr⁻ showing transitions to the 32 and 31 states. The
solid, black trace is the experimental data. The dotted, blue trace is the Franck-Condon
simulation, and the red sticks are the corresponding Franck-Condon intensity for each transition.
The origin bands of the 32 and 31 states are designated with 1 . The inset contains thephotoelectron spectrum showing hot bands, which are transitions from excited vibrational statesof IBr⁻. The solid, black trace is the experimental data, and the dashed, blue line is a fit with
Gaussian peaks spaced by 16.6 meV.

48
To extract further data, we simulate the spectrum in Fig 3.2 using the PESCAL
program.13,59 The simulation uses Morse potentials for the ground state of the anion and the firsttwo excited states of IBr.43,48 Although the excited states do not fit perfectly to a Morsepotential, it is sufficient for these simulations. Less is known about the anion ground state.
However, there is a minimal geometry change between the anion and excited states; therefore,
use of a Morse potential is reasonable. The spectroscopic constants for the neutral excited states
are held constant at known literature values,46,49,50,52 along with the ωe and ωexe values for theanion ground state. (The ωe is determined from the fit to the data in the inset of Fig. 3.2, and theωexe for the anion will be discussed later in this section). The anion temperature, the bond lengthchange between the anion ground state and IBr excited states, the origin position of the IBr
excited states relative to the anion ground state, and the origin intensities are all varied to fit theexperimental data. The anion temperature (Tvib) and geometry change (Re) establish the shapeof the Franck-Condon envelopes; the origin position and intensity determine the position andintensity of the spectral envelopes. In Fig. 3.2, the Franck-Condon simulation is shown as adotted, blue trace, and the Franck-Condon intensities for the various transitions are shown as red
sticks.
The outputs of the simulation yield the vibrational temperature and the Re(I–Br) value forthe anion ground state as well as the EA(IBr). The simulation yields a Tvib ~ 150 K for the anion.
The simulated Re for each spectral band leads to the anion equilibrium bond length(3.01 ± 0.01 Å) since the Re(I–Br) values for the IBr 32 (2.841 ± 0.002 Å) and 31(2.858 ± 0.001 Å) states are already known.49,51,52 The difference between the two simulatedRe values for the 32 and 31 bands, which is the simulated difference in the equilibrium I–Br
bond lengths for the two excited states of IBr, is slightly different than the literature value,49
0.017 ± 0.003 Å.13,15,16 The small discrepancy most likely comes from the changing
photodetachment cross section. The photodetachment cross section changes as a function of theelectron kinetic energy, where the change is most significant near the laser-detachment threshold(at low kinetic energy).60 It is not trivial to correct for the change in cross section in molecules.
As mentioned earlier in the section, the bond length change determines the envelope shape.
Therefore, the changing photodetachment cross section will affect the 31 envelope more thanthe 32 envelope, thus leading to the slight inconsistency in the simulated bond length change
between the two excited states.
The EA determination is not as straightforward as the Re determination for IBr⁻ since therotational states are populated in the anion; the PESCAL simulation does not account for therotational contribution to the experimental lineshapes. In general, a difference in rotational
constants, Be, between the initial and final states results in an asymmetric rotational contour thatshifts the true vibronic band origin away from the lineshape maximum (VDE). The known Be″
for the 32 and 31 states is 0.0424 ± 0.0005 cm-1 and 0.0429 ±0.0001 cm-1, respectively.46,49-52
However, the Be′ for the anion ground state is not known but is estimated to be
0.03825 ± 0.0003 cm-1 based on the anion Re in the ground electronic state. Using anapproximate formula for band shifts and a rotational temperature of 100 K, we determine that therotational contour shifts the origin position by 8 ± 5 cm-1 lower in energy than the VDE.9
Looking back to the simulation in Fig 3.2, seven of the spectral peaks are “clean” (consisting of asingle vibrational transition) with two of these being the 32 and 31 origin peaks, where theorigin positions determined from the simulation are 3.9225 and 4.0388 eV, respectively. Thesepeaks are suitable for the determination of the EA(IBr), using the peak centers and the estimated50
rotational shift of the peak maxima. We determine the EA(IBr) = 2.512 ± 0.003 eV, where theuncertainty comes from the energy calibration of the spectrum, fit to the spectrum, calculated
rotational shift, and the previously determined term energies. As expected, the EA(IBr) issimilar to other dihalogens: EA(I2) = 2.524 eV and EA(Br2) = 2.4 – 2.6 eV.47,54,56,61-63 Table 3.1
contains a summary of the spectroscopic constants for IBr and IBr⁻.

Table 3.1 Spectroscopic constants for IBr (X̃ 1+, 32, and 31) and IBr⁻ (X̃ 2+).
T0(eV)de(cm-1)exe(cm-1)

D0(eV)Re(Å)

IBr (31)a1.5253(1)135(2)

1.8(9)

0.2922(5)2.858(1)

IBr (32)b1.4105(5)147.631(1)1.261(4)0.407(1)2.841(2)IBr (X̃ 1+)

0268.68(1)0.81(1)1.8181(1)2.469

IBr⁻ (X̃ 2+)c-2.512(3)e134(10)0.55

0.966(3)3.01(1)aAveraged spectroscopic constants for 31 taken from previous publications46,50,52b
Averaged spectroscopic constants for 32 taken from previous publications49,51c
Averaged spectroscopic constants for 2+ taken from previous publications46,47,64d
T0 is the energy of the v = 0 level in each electronic state relative to the v = 0 of IBr(X̃ 1+)e
Alternatively, EA(IBr) = 2.512 ± 0.003 eV

Finally, a thermochemical cycle is used to determine the dissociation energy for the anion
ground state:
D0(X̃ 2+ I–Br⁻) = D0(X̃ 1+ I–Br) + EA(IBr) – EA(Br).

Eqn. 3.1

The D0(X̃ 1+ I–Br) = 1.8181 eV and the EA(Br) = 3.3636 eV are known from literature
values.2,64 The EA(IBr) = 2.512 eV is determined from our simulation of the IBr⁻ photoelectron
spectrum, previously discussed. This thermochemical cycle gives a D0(X̃ 2+ I–Br⁻) value of

51
0.966 ± 0.003 eV, which is close to the value calculated by Parson and coworkers (0.948 eV) andsmaller than previous estimates.30,43,47 Considering the zero-point energy (which isapproximately half of the anion vibrational frequency, 67 ± 5 cm-1), the De(X̃ 2+ I–Br) equals
0.974 ± 0.0003 eV. The simulation in Fig 3.2 uses Morse potentials where the ωe is held at 134
cm-1, ωexe is fixed at 0.55 cm-1, and Tvib = 150 K. The anion vibrational temperature is low
enough that the ωexe value does not significantly affect the simulation. Therefore, we further
confirm the anharmonicity by calculating the ωexe using a Morse potential with a well depth of
0.974 eV, which results in a value consistent with the 0.55 cm-1 used in the simulation.
3.4 Photoelectron Spectroscopy of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 1 – 3The bare IBr⁻ spectrum (taken with photodetachment radiation of λ = 300 nm) has threeeasily identifiable regions that originate from transitions to the three lowest energy electronic
states of IBr. The bare anion spectrum (black trace) is compared to the photoelectron spectra ofsolvated IBr⁻, IBr⁻(CO2)n (n = 1 – 3), in Fig. 3.3. The spectrum for IBr⁻(CO2) is taken at λ =285 nm (blue trace), the IBr⁻(CO2)2 spectrum is taken at λ = 272 nm (green trace), and theIBr⁻(CO2)3 spectrum is taken at λ = 260 nm (red trace). As more CO2 molecules are added, thespectral features shift to higher binding energy. The spectra become more congested, but
overall, the character of the spectra is preserved. The assignment of the spectral features follows
from the bare anion spectrum. There are spectrally broad transitions to the ground electronic
state of the clusters, IBr(CO2)n (X̃ 1+), which reside lower in binding energy, and transitions to
the higher energy 3 states, which result in sharper features.

52

Figure 3.3 The photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3. The ground state and first two
excited states are shown for IBr (black trace), IBr⁻(CO2) (blue trace), IBr⁻(CO2)2 (green trace),and IBr⁻(CO2)3 (red trace). The electron affinity, EA, is not directly observed but identified foreach spectrum. The vertical, dashed lines are the VDEs for each peak from a fit using threeGaussian lineshapes. The inset contains the energy diagram for the clusters, showing therelationship between cluster electron affinities and the solvent binding energies of the neutral andanion clusters.

The shift to higher binding energies is expected with solvation and leads to an EA
estimate for the solvated IBr(CO2)n clusters. The measured spectral shift is the difference in CO2
binding energy between the anion and neutral species. As the inset to Fig. 3.3 shows, the shift is
to higher binding energy because the anion (∆neutral (∆) has a stronger solvent binding energy than the). The IBr⁻–CO2 solvation is dominated by a charge-quadrupole interaction;

whereas, the IBr–CO2 solvation is dominated by a dipole moment-quadrupole interaction. Oncethe shift in binding energy is understood, the EA can be estimated for the solvated species, using
the cycle illustrated in the inset of Fig 3.3:
EAn+1 = EAn + ∆–∆.

Eqn. 3.2

53
For example, when n = 0, EAn+1 is the EA of IBr(CO2), EAn is the EA of IBr, and ∆–∆isthe measured shift in the spectral features. Before the EAs can be determined for IBr(CO2)n, thespectral shift must be quantified, ∆–∆; however, this is not a straightforward task since thespectral features become congested and blurred upon solvation.
To quantify the spectral shifts, we fit each spectrum to a sum of three Gaussians. For
IBr⁻(CO2)n n = 0 and 1, this is fairly straightforward because all three spectral bands are well
separated. The situation becomes more complicated for n = 2 and 3; however, we use theanalogy to n = 0 and 1 to fit the n = 2 and 3 spectra. In the n = 0 and 1 spectra, the spacing
between the peak centers (or VDEs) of the 3 states is similar (105 meV on average), andtherefore, we constrain the separation between the 32 and 31 peak centers to 105 meV in the n= 2 and 3 spectra. Also, the 32 and 31 states have approximately the same width in the n = 0(width of 60 meV) or 1 (width of 90 meV) spectra; therefore, the width of the 32 and 31 peaks
are kept the same for the n = 2 (width of 120 meV) and 3 (width of 150 meV) spectra. With
these constraints the n = 2 and 3 spectra are fit to a sum of three Gaussians. Table 3.2 contains
the VDEs and peak shifts for the bare and solvated spectra. The first CO2 molecule shifts thepeaks by ~155 meV. If we estimate that the binding energy of IBr–CO2 is ~50 – 100 meV(I–CO2 binding energy is 45 meV and I2–CO2 binding energy is 95 meV), then we arrive at theIBr⁻–CO2 binding energy being ~205 – 255 meV, which is consistent with previous calculations
by Thompson et al.43,45,65,66

54
Table 3.2 Fits to the photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3 and electron affinities (EA)
for IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3.
Parent anion
Neutral electronic state

IBr⁻

IBr⁻(CO2)

IBr⁻(CO2)2

IBr⁻(CO2)3

3

4.063

4.219

4.348

4.468

0.156

0.129

0.120

4.109

4.243

4.363

0.149

0.134

0.120

3.504

3.646

3.786

0.163

0.142

0.140

2.67(3)2.80(6)2.93(9)

1

VDE (eV)peak shift (eV)a3

2

VDE (eV)

3.960

peak shift (eV)aX̃ 1+VDE (eV)

3.341

peak shift (eV)a
EA (eV)a2.512(3)peak shifts are VDE differences between consecutive cluster anions, VDEn+1 – VDEn

The EAs for IBr(CO2)n, n = 0 – 3, are included in Table 3.2, where the EAs for n = 1 – 3
are determined from Eqn. 3.2. As was discussed earlier, Eqn. 3.2 includes the ∆

–∆

term,

which is related to the peak shifts in the spectrum. Within each solvated spectrum, the spectral
bands are energetically shifted about the same amount relative to the bare IBr⁻ spectral features;
this consistent shift strongly suggests that the transitions under each peak do not change withsolvation, i.e., the origin transitions are contained in the 3 envelopes for all values of n.
Therefore, the peak shifts (Table 3.2) equal the ∆–∆term. Since the spectral peaks

become wider with increasing values of n, the uncertainty of the origin position within the peaks
increases. Therefore, the uncertainties in the EAs for n = 1 – 3 are directly related to theincreasing full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the 3 bands as n increases, where the
FWHM is 60, 90, 120, and 150 meV for n = 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

55
The relatively constant shift in the spectral features indicates that the CO2 solvent
molecules are minimally perturbing the electronic chromophore of IBr⁻ and IBr. However, thephotoelectron spectra become more congested as n increases. For n = 1, transitions to the 3
states become blurred and the vibrational progressions are no longer observed; following theaddition of the second CO2 molecule, transitions to the two excited states can no longer be
separated into two bands. The CO2 molecule adds additional degrees of freedom and, therefore,
congestion to the measured photoelectron spectra. Similarly, in a high-resolution photoelectron
spectrum (zero electron kinetic energy, ZEKE, spectroscopy) of I⁻(CO2), Neumark andcoworkers found that vibrational motion along the I–CO2 coordinate led to overtones and hot
bands spaced by 30 and 60 cm-1, respectively. They also identified the CO2 low frequency bend,
667 cm-1, in their spectrum.67-69 We would also expect to have similar contributions from theCO2 in the IBr⁻(CO2)n spectra, except the IBr–CO2 stretching modes should be lower infrequency due to the heavier mass of IBr⁻. Finally, the rotational contours will be broader
because of the asymmetry brought about by the CO2 geometry, which will further congest the
spectra. Therefore, it is not surprising that the additional degrees of freedom introduced by theCO2 congest the spectra even though it is minimally perturbing the electronic chromophore ofIBr⁻ and IBr.
3.5 Conclusion
The photoelectron spectrum of IBr⁻ directly accesses the ground electronic state (1+) andfirst two excited states (32 and 31) of IBr. The two bands corresponding to transitions to the32 and 31 states contain vibrational progressions and are fit to yield spectroscopic parametersof the anion and neutral IBr. The fit provides an accurate determination of the EA = 2.512(3) eV

56
of neutral IBr as well as the Re(I–Br⁻) = 3.01(1) Å, the ωe = 134(10) cm-1, and the ωexe =0.55 cm-1 of the anion ground state. Using a thermochemical cycle, the dissociation energy of
the anion is determined to be D0 = 0.966(3) eV. There is good agreement between theseexperimental values and the calculated values by Thompson et al. which gives confidence to thetheoretical approach for these larger dihalide systems.
The photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 1 – 3, retain similar spectral features as thebare IBr⁻ spectrum, but they become more congested with each additional CO2 molecule. The
congestion is due to the additional degrees of freedom introduced by the CO2 solvent. The
spectral features are systematically shifted as n increases, which strongly suggest that the CO2 isminimally perturbing the electronic chromophore of the anion and neutral IBr. The spectral shift
is directly related to determining the EA of the IBr(CO2)n clusters. The photoelectron spectra of
the sequential solvation will be important for interpreting the time-resolved studies of IBr⁻ andIBr⁻(CO2), which will be the focus of the next chapter.

57

Chapter IV: Watching Charge Transfer within IBr⁻(CO2)

4.1 Motivation for time‐resolved experiments
To a first approximation, electronic and nuclear motions are separable, and the electrons
respond “instantaneously” to any change in the nuclear coordinates. This is known as the BornOppenheimer (B-O) approximation and is the basis for the adiabatic potential energy surfaces ofmolecules. These molecular adiabatic surfaces are often used to estimate pathways forphotodissociation processes. However, not all processes follow the B-O approximation, such as
relaxation of electronically excited molecules, charge-transfer reactions, andchemiluminescence.70-72 The B-O approximation often breaks down when both the kinetic
energy of the nuclear coordinates is significant and the evolving system is near a conicalintersection or in a region where two different electronic states are close in energy.70
Understanding the breakdown of the B-O approximation is important in many processes. Two
examples are photoinduced DNA damage, where nonadiabatic transitions protect photoexcited
DNA, and the photoisomerization of rhodopsin, which is responsible for vision.73-75 These
processes, and many others, take place in the condensed phase; thus, it is also important tounderstand how, if at all, the solution phase is promoting the nonadiabatic process.
As is discussed in the previous chapter and Chapter I, the dynamics in condensed phaseare difficult to study on a microscopic level because the measured dynamics are usually averaged
over the entire solution. Clusters in the gas phase, therefore, provide an avenue to isolate thesolvation effects and study them on a microscopic level. Ionic clusters have an additional
advantage in that they can be separated by mass-to -charge in a time-of-flight apparatus, and the

58effect of consecutive addition of solvent molecules can be determined. By mass selecting
different cluster sizes, the effect of the local environment around the ionic chromophore can be
determined. In bulk solution, the local environment around a chromophore can be different thanthe bulk characteristics; therefore, it is important to know how the local environment responds tochanges in the chromophore.76,77
Our group and the Parson group have a long, collaborative history of studying dihalidecluster anions,16,78-82 and in particular IBr⁻(CO2)n, n = 0 – 14.30,43-45,83 The collaborative effort
has focused on the photodissociation dynamics of these clusters, where the dynamics vary
(geminate recombination, caging, solvated photoproducts, and charge transfer) depending on thecluster size. These IBr⁻(CO2)n cluster studies reveal that large cluster sizes are not necessary tochange the dissociation dynamics; instead, one CO2 molecule is sufficient to alter thephotodissociation dynamics of IBr⁻.30,43,45 More specifically, photoexcited IBr⁻ anions canundergo nonadiabatic processes when solvated by a single CO2 molecule.
The bare IBr⁻ anion has at least two absorption bands in the visible/near infrared region
that correspond to the two low-lying electronic states (A′ 21/2 and B 2+ states), which are
optically allowed transitions from the ground electronic state of IBr⁻ (X̃ 2+).33,43,45 Figure 4.1
shows the calculated potential energy curves for the six lowest energy electronic states of IBr⁻;
the calculation is discussed later in the text. The molecular orbital-based description of theelectronic configuration of the ground state of IBr⁻ is 24*4*1. Excitation of the bare IBr⁻ X̃2 + anion to the A′ 21/2 state involves a  to * transition and leads to a single photodissociation

channel:30,33
IBr⁻ (X̃ 2+) + hν (Ephoton = 1.57 eV) → IBr⁻ (A′ 21/2) → I⁻ + Br 100%.

Eqn. 4.1

59
Excitation to the second bright state, the B state, is a stronger transition (→ *) and also leads
to a single photodissociation channel:30,33
IBr⁻

2 +

 ) + hν (Ephoton = 3.14 eV) → IBr⁻ (B 2+) → I* + Br⁻

100%.

Eqn. 4.2

Figure 4.1 Calculated potential energy curves of IBr⁻. The six lowest electronic states of IBr⁻
are plotted as a function of the I–Br bond length.

Yet, previous photofragment analysis studies of IBr⁻(CO2)n show that one CO2 solvent
molecule can profoundly influence the dissociation dynamics, resulting in the appearance of
charge-transferred photoproducts. Although these studies lacked time resolution, they
unambiguously show that the photodissociating IBr⁻(CO2) cluster undergoes nonadiabatic
transitions to one or more nearby electronic state(s) with charge transfer character:33

60
IBr⁻(CO2) (X̃ 2+) + hν (Ephoton = 1.57 eV) → IBr⁻(CO2) (A′ 21/2)→ I⁻ + CO2 + Br 36.3%,

Eqn. 4.3a→ I⁻(CO2) + Br 60.5%,

Eqn. 4.3b→ I + CO2 + Br⁻ 3.2%,

Eqn. 4.3c

where Eqn. 4.3c is the nonadiabatic transition to the A 23/2 or X̃ 2+ electronic states, andIBr⁻(CO2) (X̃ 2+) + hν (Ephoton = 3.14 eV) → IBr⁻(CO2) (B 2+)→ I* + Br⁻ + CO2 67.5%,

Eqn. 4.4a→ I⁻ + Br* + CO2 32.5%,

Eqn. 4.4b

where the nonadiabatic transition is from the B 2+ to the a′ 21/2 in Eqn. 4.4b. In the B-state
photodissociation studies of IBr⁻(CO2) (Eqn. 4.4), the CO2 solvent molecule does not solvate thephotoproducts as it does in the A′-state photodissociation studies (Eqn. 4.3). The kinetic energy
release following photoexcitation to the B state is 1.2 eV, which is four times greater than the A′state studies. The much larger kinetic energy release in the B state converts into dissociation
along the solvent-binding (I⁻–CO2 or Br⁻–CO2) coordinate.
Sanov and coworkers studied the photodissociation of IBr⁻ after excitation to the A′ state
and also found that IBr⁻ cleanly dissociates to I⁻ + Br using time-resolved photoelectron
spectroscopy (TRPES).84 This technique involves a pump-probe experimental scheme, where
the first (pump) laser pulse promotes the anion to an excited state and a time-delayed (t) probe
laser pulse photodetaches the electron. By measuring the photoelectron spectrum at various

61
delay times, the evolution of the electronic character is followed in real time. With 300 fs
experimental resolution, they find at early times (0 – 200 fs) that the photodetachment signal
spreads out over a few hundred meV. During the first picosecond (ps), the signal narrows andshifts until it reaches its final spectral position, which corresponds to the I⁻ reference peak. After
1 ps, the photodetachment signal does not change in width or position, which suggests that the I⁻
fragment is no longer influenced by the Br counterpart.
The calculated TRPES results, performed by McCoy and coworkers, are in good
agreement with the experimental TRPES.85 In these calculations, the IBr⁻ is treated quantum
mechanically, where the ground-state wave function of IBr⁻ is promoted and propagated on the
A′ electronic state prior to photodetaching the electron. It is notable that the experimental results
are successfully reproduced by a calculation that does not account for possible changes in thephotodetachment cross section; because of this, the authors conclude that the photodetachment
cross section is constant during the photodissociation of IBr⁻ following excitation to the A′ state.
In the remainder of this chapter, the solvent-mediated charge transfer dynamics arestudied by TRPES, building upon the experiments of Sanov and coworkers. For the A′-state
photodissociation studies, the IBr⁻(CO2) evolving wave function is probed as the charge transfersfrom I to Br, and the time for charge transfer is determined (Eqn. 4.3). We also investigate theB-state photodissociation studies with TRPES. In these B-state studies, the adiabatic products
correspond to I* + Br⁻ (Eqn. 4.2), which is characterized with TRPES. Again, one CO2
molecule is sufficient to influence the dissociation dynamics on the B state, and IBr⁻(CO2)
dissociates to both I* + Br⁻ + CO2 (Eqn. 4.4a) and I⁻ + Br* + CO2 (Eqn. 4.4b). The TRPES ofIBr⁻(CO2) following excitation to the B state captures this charge hop from the B 2+ state to the62lower energy a′ 21/2 electronic state. High-level quantum mechanical calculations andmolecular dynamics (MD) simulations assist in the interpretation of all the TRPES data and themechanism for solvent-mediated charge transfer.
4.2 Experimental
A full description of the experimental apparatus, including the appropriate references, isdetailed in Chapter II, specifically, the femtosecond (fs) laser setup in section 2.3.2. The
production of the I79Br⁻ and I79Br⁻(CO2) is identical to the procedure outlined in Chapter III.
This chapter involves two femtosecond laser setups for the A′- and B-electronic state
photodissociation studies. The A′-state studies require a pump wavelength of 788 nm (1.5 mJ)
and a probe wavelength of 313 nm (30 – 40 μJ). The 788-nm radiation is the fundamental outputof the fs laser system and is divided into the pump and probe leg with a 50:50 beam splitter. For
the probe leg, the 788-nm light pumps an optical parametric amplifier (OPA), and the OPA
signal output is quadrupled to produce the 313-nm probe light. For the B-state studies, the pumplight (394 nm, 500 μJ) is generated by doubling the fundamental radiation. The probe light is
produced by quadrupling the OPA signal output to obtain tunable UV radiation, 30 – 40 μJ, (forIBr⁻ 313-nm radiation is used and for IBr⁻(CO2) 305-nm radiation is used).
For each spectrum that is taken at a delay time, t, the background must be subtracted.
The background consists of one-photon signals that come from pump or probe light alone. For
example, Fig. 4.2 shows the transient signal for the IBr⁻(CO2) A′-state studies at t = 50 ps (bluetrace). This time-resolved signal is a result of the pump-only and probe-only spectra (both black
traces) subtracted from the pump-probe spectrum (pulses delayed from each other by t = 50 ps,
red trace). The same background subtraction scheme is used for all time delays, and we combine

63
all of the resulting transient spectra into a 3D contour plot to display the data. The same
approach is taken with the B-state photodissociation studies.

Figure 4.2 Determining the transient spectrum for IBr⁻(CO2) A′ studies. The pump-probe
spectrum taken at t = 50 ps (red trace) for the A′-state photodissociation studies contains signals
from direct photodetachment by the individual pump and probe pulses. These one-photon
signals from pump-only or probe-only spectra (black traces) are subtracted from the red trace.
The difference spectrum for t = 50 ps (blue trace) is the transient time-resolved signal fromconsecutive pump-probe pulses. The transient spectrum is determined in this way for all timedelays studied. Also, the same background correction is made for the B-state photodissociation
studies.

4.3 TRPES of IBr⁻(CO2) A’‐state photodissociation
Dissociation of IBr⁻(CO2) after excitation to the A′ 21/2 electronic state is followed inreal time with photoelectron spectroscopy. Figure 4.3 depicts the experimental scheme for thisdissociation. The IBr⁻(CO2), in its ground electronic state, X̃ 2, interacts with the pump pulse

64(788 nm) and is promoted to the A′ 21/2 surface. On the excited-state surface, the IBr⁻(CO2)
dissociates to one of three channels, Eqn. 4.3a – c.30 Strictly speaking, the electronic states ofIBr⁻(CO2) differ from those of bare IBr⁻ and should be described by a different set of statelabels. Yet, the ”average” electronic structure perturbation induced by a single CO2 solvent
molecule is quite small, and the electronic states of the cluster anion bear close resemblance tothose of IBr⁻. Similar to IBr⁻, the A′ surface of IBr⁻(CO2) has the excess charge localized on the
I atom at increasing I–Br distance. Thus, the products of adiabatic dissociation (channels 1 and 2
in Fig. 4.3) are I⁻ and I⁻(CO2), respectively, and the nonadiabatic product channel (3) is the
charge-transfer channel that yields Br⁻. The probe laser pulse photodetaches the excess electron
at some delay time to follow the evolution of the dissociating complex, and the photoelectron
spectrum is taken at each t. The right side of Fig. 4.3 depicts the calculated potential energy
curves for IBr⁻ X̃ 2 (solid, red trace) and A′ 21/2 (solid, black trace) electronic states, while
the dashed traces are the same potential energy curves solvated by the CO2 binding energy(~ 200 meV) and represent the minimum energy path for each of the multidimensional electronic
surfaces.43,65,67 Three of the four asymptotes correspond to the available dissociation channels,
where channel 1 and 2 are a product of dissociation along the A′ state and the third channel
occurs following a nonadiabatic transition to the ground electronic state.

65

Figure 4.3 Schematic diagram for photodissociation of IBr⁻(CO2) following excitation to the A′2
1/2 surface. The lower potential energy surface is the X̃ 2+ electronic state, and the higher
energy surface is the A′ 21/2 electronic state. The surfaces are plotted as a function of the I–Br
bond length and the CO2 position, where the two extremes are the CO2 residing on the I (purple
sphere) or Br (green sphere) end. The pump-probe experimental scheme is shown with arrows.
The three dissociation channels are depicted by numbers 1 – 3. The three dissociation channels
are also shown on the right side that displays the potential energy curves for the X̃ (red traces)
and A′ (black traces) electronic states. The solid curves are the calculated bare IBr⁻ potential
energy curves, and the dotted curves represent the binding energy of CO2, which is ~ 200 meV.

4.3.1 Experimental Results
By taking the time-resolved photoelectron spectrum of IBr⁻(CO2), the electronic
character of the dissociating species is tracked in real time, which directly yields the time that the
charge localizes and elucidates the mechanism for charge transfer. Figure 4.4 plots thephotoelectron spectra versus electron binding energy (eBE) at t in a 3D contour plot. The
spectra are obtained from t = -200 fs (-0.2 ps) to +50 ps. At the earliest times, there is one

66
broad spectral feature that shifts from eBE = 3.05 eV to 3.15 eV. This single spectral feature
begins to split into three distinct peaks around t = +200 ps. For the next 200 ps, the resulting
three spectral features drastically shift in energy. Between t = 400 fs and 1ps, some minor
energy shifting occurs, where the three peaks converge towards the known photodetachment
energies of I⁻, I⁻(CO2), and Br⁻. After t = 1 ps, the spectra remain constant for the duration oftime delays measured, which strongly suggests that the dissociation is complete.

Figure 4.4 Time-resolved photoelectron spectra of dissociating IBr⁻(CO2) following excitation
to the A′ electronic state. The 3D contour plot shows the transient photoelectron spectra as afunction of eBE and t, where t = -200 fs to +50 ps. The right axis shows the approximate
corresponding I–Br bond length for various time delays. The white circles are the fitted,
Gaussian peak centers at t. The top panel contains the transient spectrum (solid trace) for t =50 ps and the corresponding fit with three independent Gaussian peaks (dotted trace). The three
arrows above the spectral features indicate the measured transitions from I⁻, I⁻(CO2), and Br⁻.

67
The t = 50 ps spectrum is representative of fully-separated photofragments and is shownin the top panel of Fig. 4.4. The three peaks in the transient spectrum (solid, black trace)
correspond to transitions from I⁻, I⁻(CO2), and Br⁻, which are known from independentcalibration spectra to lie at eBE = 3.059, ~3.25, and 3.364 eV, respectively. The calibrated
transitions are marked with arrows in the top panel of Fig. 4.4. The atomic fragment features inthe transient spectrum coincide perfectly with the calibrated transitions; however, the I⁻(CO2)transition lies ~ 50 meV lower in binding energy than the calibrated transition. The calibratedI⁻(CO2) feature arises from photodetaching an electron from “cold” I⁻(CO2) clusters that areeasily generated in our anion source. The ~50 meV shift means that the I⁻(CO2) produced in thephotodissociation is vibrationally hot, and this shift is consistent with the “hot” I⁻(CO2)
occupying ¼ of the I⁻–(CO2) well depth.65 The three spectral features at t = 50 ps are fit to asum of three Gaussian peaks, which is the dotted line in the top panel. Assuming approximately
equal photodetachment cross sections of the charged photoproducts, the fit results in aphotodissociation product yield of 31% I⁻, 64% I⁻(CO2), and 5% Br⁻ following excitation to theA′ electronic state, which is consistent with earlier photofragmentation studies from our lab(Eqns. 4.3).30,33,43 A similar fit is performed for all the spectra with three features (t > 200 fs).
The Gaussian peak centers are marked with white circles on the contour plot. For t < 200 fs,
there is only one spectral feature that is fit to a single Gaussian, and its center is also shown witha white circle.
The division of the single spectral feature into three components around t = 200 fs isindicative of the excess charge in the cluster beginning to localize onto the photofragments.
Between the pump-probe delays of 200 and 400 fs there are drastic changes in the transient68
spectra. This indicates a period of transition where the electronic structure of the cluster evolves
from that of excited IBr⁻(CO2) (the so-called “molecular” regime) to that of the isolated
photofragments. After 400 fs, the transient spectral features are still evolving but to a lesser
degree; this suggests that the excess charge stays localized but is influenced by the otherdeparting photofragments. After 1 ps, the charged fragment no longer interacts with its
counterpart, and the spectral features remain constant. Crucially, the transient peak attributed to
the Br⁻ fragment appears during the transition from the “molecular” to the dissociated regime,
which shows that the charge transfer from I to Br occurs by 400 fs. To determine a moreaccurate charge-transfer time, the photoelectron signal of the Br⁻ channel (slice of the spectra
centered at 3.36 eV) is fit to an instrument-limited rise (200 fs) convoluted with a step function,
which is centered at 350 ± 20 fs. The 350-fs time delay corresponds to the charge-transfer time
and will be discussed later in more detail.
The experimental data directly yield the electron transfer time, which is a key quantity forunraveling the details of the nonadiabatic photodissociation dynamics of IBr⁻(CO2) following
excitation to the A′ electronic state. The transient photoelectron spectroscopy also sheds light on
the evolution of the electronic structure during photodissociation and, importantly, on the role of
the CO2 solvent molecule. The transient spectra are quite complex and their interpretation
requires high-level calculations and molecular dynamics modeling to elucidate the chargetransfer mechanism.
4.3.2 Calculations
The theoretical contribution to this work is significant and encompasses two researchgroups: Robert Parson at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Anne McCoy at The Ohio

69
State University with their respective graduate students Matthew Thompson and Samantha
Horvath. This section provides a summary of the theoretical work but a more detailed
explanation can be found in other references directly related to this chapter.25,26,43,45,85,86
The molecular dynamics (MD) simulations utilize an effective Hamiltonian approachdeveloped by Parson and coworkers that calculates the potential energy surface of the IBr⁻(CO2)“on the fly”.87,88 The IBr⁻ anion is treated quantum mechanically in a truncated basis set of
isolated electronic states, while the CO2 solvent is treated classically. The IBr⁻ basis set contains
the ground and all the valence-excited states to yield six doubly degenerate electronic states, thus
creating a 12 x 12 matrix. The isolated IBr⁻ electronic states have been calculated previouslywith MOLPRO 2002.6 at the multi-reference configuration interaction level with singles anddoubles level of theory and including spin-orbit coupling (MR-SO-CISD).89 The matrix
represents the effective Hamiltonian where the isolated IBr⁻ is part of the diagonal terms and thesolute-solvent interactions contribute to both the diagonal and off-diagonal terms. The
eigenvalues of this effective Hamiltonian define the solvated IBr⁻ curves. This method accounts
for the solvent-induced charge flow within the solute but cannot account for charge flow fromthe IBr⁻ solute to the CO2 solvent, since the CO2 is treated classically. By diagonalizing theeffective Hamiltonian at each time step in the simulation, the energies and forces are determined,
which propagates the trajectories using Anderson’s “velocity Verlet” algorithm.90 The
nonadiabatic transitions are simulated using a variation of the nonphysical surface-hopping
algorithm of Tully and Hammes-Schiffer.91,92 In this algorithm, the solvent polarizes the solutecharge distribution but remains rigid and cannot acquire any of the excess charge.

70
The MD simulations are performed at various total internal energies for IBr⁻(CO2), 200 –1400 cm-1, which translates to Tvib = 80 – 250 K. For these simulations, five ensembles are run,
where each ensemble is at a particular starting temperature (80, 120, 160, 200, or 250 K) andcontains 1000 trajectories. To create the initial ensemble, each trajectory roams on the groundelectronic state surface at a certain internal energy for 5 ns, and the geometry of the cluster issampled every 5 ps. The sampled geometry of IBr⁻(CO2) is promoted to the A′ surface where
the internal motion of the cluster is preserved from the ground state. To keep the simulationconsistent with the experiment, the I–Br bond length is adjusted so that the X̃ 2+ – A′ 21/2
energy gap is consistent with the experimental excitation energy (Ephoton = 1.57 eV). The
trajectory continues to propagate on the upper surface until the I–Br separation reaches 20 Å,
where the simulation is stopped.
The photodissociation products within the simulations vary depending on internal
temperature, Tvib. In general, the I⁻(CO2) products decrease as the temperature increases, while
the I⁻ products increase with temperature. Also, channel 3 (Br⁻) opens slightly (<1% yield) at
the higher internal temperature. In the simulations, the cluster temperature is strongly correlatedwith the geometry of the CO2 around the solute prior to dissociation (Fig. 4.5(a)). As
temperature increases, the CO2 samples a larger geometry range in the ground electronic state,
which in turn is directly related to the product yield. As can be seen in Fig. 4.5(b), the formationof I⁻(CO2) occurs when the CO2 is over the I–Br waist or closer to the I end (θCIBr = 180°) but
does not form when the CO2 is near the Br end (θCIBr = 0°).

71

fraction of trajectories

0.4
(a)

80 K
120 K
160 K
200 K
250 K

0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0

I–(CO2) product fraction

1.0
(b)

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0

30

60

90

120

150

180

CIBr (degrees)

Figure 4.5 The geometry of CO2 prior to photodissociation (a) At low internal temperatures, theCO2 molecule sits near the waist of IBr⁻. As the temperature increases, the CO2 molecule
samples a larger geometry around the solute and can be found on the Br (θCIBr = 0°) or I (θCIBr =180°) end. (b) The formation of channel 2, I⁻(CO2), occurs when the CO2 molecule is around thewaist of the solute or near the I end.

To gain insight into the role of intra-cluster vibrations on the charge-transfer mechanism,
additional high-level ab initio calculations are performed at various points along the MD
trajectories. These additional calculations utilize newer potential energy curves for the IBr⁻ andIBr⁻(CO2) that did not exist at the time of the MD simulations The new potentials are calculated
at the same level of theory (MR-SO-CISD) except with the electronic structure package of
MOLPRO 2008.1 and more recent pseudopotentials, aug-cc-pVTZ-PP, that were not available
when the MD simulations were originally run.93-95 These newer potential energy curves do notvary much from the older curves used for the MD simulations. Figure 4.1 plots these newer
potentials for the six lowest energy electronic states of IBr⁻. The results of these calculations
also yield the 36 lowest energy electronic states for neutral IBr, which are shown later in the

72chapter. The high-level ab initio calculations focus on the effect of the CO2 bending motion on
the cluster dissociation by computing the electronic energies at different OCO bend angles. In
addition, the dipole moments of the clusters are calculated in order to estimate the degree ofcharge redistribution at each point in the MD trajectory.
4.3.3 Discussion
The charge hop mechanism is solvent mediated by a single CO2 molecule. Following
excitation to the A′ state, the charge on IBr⁻ quickly localizes onto the I atom that causes the CO2
to be attracted to the excess charge. As the CO2 molecule approaches the I atom, it becomes
more bent and acquires more of the excess charge. The proximity of the CO2 influences theenergies of the electronic states, such that as the I–C distance decreases the energy gap between
the A′ and A/X̃ states decrease. Once the gap is small enough, the charge hops from the I to theBr, and in the absence of the excess charge, the initially bent CO2 is left vibrationally excited,which helps to bridge the energy gap for charge transfer. The perturbation of the electronic stateenergies from CO2 and the ability of the CO2 to remove excess energy are critical for the
nonadiabatic process. Figure 4.6 summarizes the experimental data and important theoreticalfindings, which ultimately lead to this mechanism for charge transfer.

73

Figure 4.6 MD simulations of IBr⁻(CO2) following photoexcitation to the A′ electronic state.
The left-hand panels (red) represent channel 3 dynamics, while the right-hand panels (black)
represent the dynamics of channel 1 and 2, (B), or just channel 2, (D), (F), and (H). (A) and (B)plot the growth of the experimentally measured photoelectron signals for the Br⁻ and I⁻/I⁻CO2(A′ state) spectral features, respectively. (C) and (D) graph the calculated I–C distances as afunction of t. The calculated energy differences between the X̃ 2+ and A′ 21/2 (dashed line)or the A 23/2 and A′ 21/2 (solid line) electronic states are plotted as a function of t in (E) and(F). (E) contains the calculated energy gap for an IBr⁻(CO2) cluster with an OCO angle of 180°,
while (F) for an OCO angle of 175°. The horizontal dashed lines in (E) and (F) correspond to 1
or 2 quanta in the CO2 bend. (G) and (H) show the calculated evolution of the excess charge on
the I atom. The experimental t corresponds to an I–Br bond distance, which is shown above thepanels as snapshots of the dissociating IBr⁻(CO2) for a trajectory that leads to channel 3 (left) or
channel 2 (right).

Fig. 4.6(A) and (B) contain the photoelectron signal for the Br⁻ and the I⁻/I⁻(CO2) (A′)
channels, respectively. These signals are fit to an instrument-limited rise that is convoluted witha step function. Both the I⁻ and I⁻(CO2) dissociation channels occur on the A′ electronic surface,

74
and thus are labeled together as the A′ state rise. The fit to the A′-state signal in Fig. 4.6(B) is
centered at 0 fs, showing that we detect the excited clusters immediately following theabsorption of a pump photon. This early photodetachment signal is reminiscent of the resultsfrom Sanov and coworkers on bare IBr⁻ and previous photodissociation studies on neutral Br2
where the signal rapidly localizes onto a dissociating fragment.84,96 In contrast, the fit for the Br⁻channel, Fig. 4.6(A), has an instrument-limited rise that is delayed by 350 ± 20 fs, suggestingthat at this time the charge is transferred from the I or I(CO2) to the Br fragment. Therefore, thenonadiabatic charge transfer occurs 350 fs following excitation to the A′ state.
Snapshots of the MD simulations at various time delays are shown above panels A and B
for Fig. 4.6. The left-hand side shows the snapshots for an MD simulation that yields the Br⁻charge-transfer channel, while the right-hand side pictures the snapshots from a simulation that
results in the I⁻(CO2) channel. The snapshots capture the geometry for t = 0, 350, and 800 fs
and correspond to an I–Br separation of ~3.1, ~7, and ~11 Å, where the I and Br are the purple
and green spheres, respectively. Thus, the MD simulations show that the charge transfer to Br
occurs at an I–Br distance of ~ 7 Å with the CO2 molecule positioned relatively close to the I
atom.
The results of the calculations are shown in Fig. 4.6(C) – (H), where the left panels
represent a trajectory that yields a charge hop and the right panels show a trajectory that yields
I⁻(CO2). For the charge hop trajectory (left panels), the CO2 solvent is initially attracted to the I
atom following photoexcitation of IBr⁻(CO2) to the A′ state, which is shown by the decrease in
the I–C distance (Fig. 4.6(C)). As the CO2 molecule approaches the I atom, the electronic energy
gaps between the A′ excited state and the lower energy A and X̃ states decreases (E), where

75
electronic state energies are calculated for an OCO angle of 180°. At the same time, the charge
becomes localized onto the I atom (G), which increases the attraction of the CO2 molecule to I.
When the energies of the A′ state and lower electronic energy states are degenerate, then the
charge hops from I to Br, which occurs at t = 400 fs and at an I–Br distance (RI–Br) ≈ 7 Å.
Following the charge hop, the CO2 molecule is no longer attracted to the I atom and the I–C
distance increases. Simultaneously, the energy gap between the A′ state and lower energy
electronic states increases, and the charge remains localized on Br. For the charge hop channel,
the proximity of the CO2 molecule to the charged I atom influences the energy gap between the
excited and lower energy electronic states; therefore, the nonadiabatic event is solvent mediatedby the CO2.
If the CO2 molecule does not perturb the electronic states enough, then the charge does
not transfer, as is shown in the right panels. The initial 400 fs of this trajectory is very similar tothe left panels. However, in this trajectory, the electronic energy gap between the excited A′
state and the lower energy electronic states, where the energies for the electronic states arecalculated for an OCO angle of 175°, is too large for a charge transfer. Following the initial“bounce” of CO2, the energy of the electronic states varies slightly and the charge stays localizedon the I atom, thus the CO2 molecule continues to “bounce” against the I atom to yieldvibrationally hot anion clusters.
The MD simulations capture the essence of the charge-transfer mechanism that is as theCO2 distance to the I atom decreases there is a corresponding decrease in the energy gaps
between the A′ and A/X̃ electronic states, which allows the charge to be transferred. However,the simulations underestimate the yield of the Br⁻ channel (< 1%). To make the simulations

76
more realistic and increase the yield for the Br⁻ channel, the CO2 molecule should not be treatedclassically by allowing for CO2 to bend and acquire partial charge during the photodissociation.
Experiments by Neumark and coworkers measured the photoelectron spectrum ofI⁻(CO2) and determined the OCO angle to be 175° in the equilibrium geometry.68,69 This is a
result of partial delocalization of the charge into the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(LUMO) of CO2. The results of our high-level ab initio calculations on IBr⁻(CO2) are consistent
with the experimental results of Neumark and coworkers, and we have found that as the I–C
distance decreases the OCO angle becomes smaller (< 175°), which means more charge isdelocalized into the LUMO of the CO2 molecule. In photodissociating IBr⁻(CO2), the I–C
distance and OCO angle should become even smaller than the equilibrium I⁻–(CO2) distance andOCO angle determined by Neumark and coworkers; therefore, more of the partial charge is being
removed from the I atom and delocalized to the CO2 molecule, which will aid in the chargetransfer mechanism. In addition, a bent CO2 molecule in the presence of an anion would map
onto a vibrationally excited CO2 state after the electron has been removed, thus the CO2 moleculewould leave with a few quanta of vibrational energy (1 and 2 quanta of bend excitation aremarked as dashed lines in Fig. 4.6(E) and (F)). The removal of excess energy by CO2 vibrations
allows the charge transfer to occur at larger energy gaps between the electronic states.
Therefore, our additional calculations and the results of Neumark and coworkers strongly
suggest that the yield of the charge transfer channel in the simulations would increase if the CO2
molecule could have vibrational excitation and acquire partial charge throughout the
dissociation.

77
In Fig. 4.6(G) and (H), the calculated charge on I does not include partial charge on theCO2 molecule and, therefore, does not give an accurate description of how CO2 influences the
charge distribution. Since we did not have a good method for calculating the charge distribution
within IBr⁻(CO2) as it dissociates, we use the change in the dipole moment as a proxy for the
charge distribution. Figure 4.7 plots the change in the dipole moment along the I–Br bond axis(μz). The solid curve with circles and the red curve with triangles compare differences in the
dipole moments of IBr⁻(CO2) – [IBr⁻ + CO2] or IBr⁻(CO2) – [I⁻(CO2) + Br], respectively. In
both traces, the μz favors the excess charge on the Br end between 200 and 400 fs. This showsthat the presence of CO2 influences the dynamics by shifting the charge towards Br in a timeframe that is consistent with the observed charge transfer. The μz provides further evidence
that the simulations underestimate the CO2 contributions and, therefore, the charge-transfer
channel.

Figure 4.7 The calculated change in the dipole moment (μz) along the I–Br bond axis. The
black circles and trace represent the difference between the dipole moments of IBr⁻(CO2) and[IBr⁻ + CO2]. The red triangles and trace represent the difference between the dipole momentsof IBr⁻(CO2) and [I⁻(CO2) + Br]. The double-sided arrow indicates when the excess chargefavors I⁻ or Br⁻.

78
4.4 TRPES of IBr⁻ B‐state photodissociation
When bare IBr⁻ (X̃ 2+) is excited to the second optically bright state (B 2+), the IBr⁻
anion dissociates completely into I* + Br⁻, Eqn. 4.2.30,33,43 The time scale for IBr⁻ dissociation isdetermined with TRPES, and the schematic diagram is shown in Fig. 4.8. The experimental
scheme is shown on top of the calculated potential energy curves of IBr⁻ and IBr, which havebeen described in section 4.3.2. Fig. 4.8 shows the anion, prepared in its ground electronic state(X̃ 2+, thick black curve), interacting with the pump laser pulse. Absorption of a pump photon
promotes the IBr⁻ anion to the B 2+ state (thick blue curve) at t = 0. As IBr⁻ dissociates into I*(purple sphere) + Br⁻ (green sphere), the probe laser pulse photodetaches an electron from thedissociating anion at t. The neutral curve that is bolded has the correct asymptote (I* + Br) for
photodetachment from the B electronic state. This bolded curve is used for the calculated
TRPES because it is the neutral state that is expected to be accessed by loss of one electron fromthe B state near the IBr⁻ geometry at t = 0. As the IBr⁻ anion evolves along the B state, moreneutral states could become available for photodetachment transitions. However at longer bondlengths, these states become energetically degenerate with the bolded, neutral state, and since thephotodetachment cross sections for these states are not known, we do not include the otherneutral states in the calculated TRPES at longer I–Br bond lengths.

79

Figure 4.8 The schematic diagram for TRPES of dissociating IBr⁻ following excitation to the B
state. The calculated potential energy curves for IBr⁻ and IBr are shown with the relevant statesbolded. The IBr⁻ in its ground electronic state is promoted to the B 2+ state with the pumppulse at t = 0. At some time later, t, the probe pulse interacts with the dissociating fragments toremove an electron. The I and Br atoms are depicted by the purple and green spheres,
respectively.

4.4.1 Results
The TRPES for IBr⁻ following excitation to the B 2+ electronic state reveals
photodetachment signal from only Br⁻. The TRPES data are shown in Fig 4.9(a) for various
time delays, t = -0.2 – 1.2 ps. Since our probe laser pulse has sufficient energy, thephotodetachment of Br⁻ yields both the ground state of Br (feature at 3.36) and the spin-obit
excited state, Br* (3.82 eV), which is shown in the reference spectrum (b). These features80
exhibit minimal spectral shifting as the Br and Br* peaks grow in intensity (t = 0.2 – 0.5 ps),and the peaks remain constant at the reference position after 0.5 ps. The abrupt formation of Br⁻
is consistent with previous photodissociation studies and the A′ state photodissociation studies
for IBr⁻ and IBr⁻(CO2).84,96 In Fig. 4.9(c), the integrated signal for both Br (black circles) andBr* (white circles) is plotted at each t, and fit to an instrument-limited rise convoluted with astep function. The fit is centered at t = 200 ± 20 fs (0.2 ps) for both Br and Br*. As in the A′state studies, one would expect to observe photodetachment signal from a B-state complex at t~ 0 fs, which quickly yields the Br⁻ product since this is the adiabatic channel. We turn totheoretical calculations to aid in an explanation for the lack of photodetachment signal in the“molecular” regime.

81

Figure 4.9 Time-resolved photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻ photodissociating along the B-electronic
state. (a) The 3D contour plots the spectra as a function of delay time, t, and electron binding
energy. (b) The reference spectrum shows transitions to Br and Br* and is taken under the same
experimental conditions. (c) The integrated signal for the Br (filled, black circles) and Br*(unfilled, black circles) channels along with the fits for each channel are shown. The integrated
photoelectron intensity from the calculated TRPES for the Br channel is shown as the dashed,
red trace.

4.4.2 Calculations
The quantum dynamics calculations performed on IBr⁻ photodissociation along the B
state have been previously described; therefore, only a brief summary is provided here. 25,26,85
These calculations use the previously generated potential energy curves and sinc-discretevariable representation to evaluate the nuclear states that correspond to the IBr⁻ and IBrelectronic states that are involved in the dynamics (solid, black and blue curves in Fig. 4.8).97,98

82
The theoretical model used to calculate the IBr⁻ B-state TRPES is almost identical to thatused for the IBr⁻ A′ state, and the model has been previously applied to the photodissociation ofI2⁻ by Miller and coworkers.85,86,99 Only the final equations are given. For these calculations,the vibrational temperature of IBr⁻ is 200 K. The wave packet for each thermally populated
vibrational state of the anion ground state is placed on the B state and propagated in time. The
overlap between the wave packet on the B state of IBr⁻ and eigenstates of the accessible neutral
surface (solid, black neutral curve in Fig. 4.8) are evaluated. As mentioned earlier, the bolded,
neutral curve represents the only neutral state that can be accessed by loss of one electron fromthe B state near t = 0. The signal for the time-resolved photoelectron spectra as a function of theelectron kinetic energy, ε, and pump-probe delay time, t, is calculated by evaluating Eqn. 4.5.
,Δ

∑

⁄

∆

⁄

∑

.

|

⁄

Eqn. 4.5

The F1(t′) and F2(t – t) are the functional forms for the pump and probe pulses with energies of
Epump (3.128 eV) and Eprobe (3.967 eV), respectively. The functional forms for the pump andprobe pulses are,

Eqn. 4.6

where δj is the full width at half maximum for the pump (200 fs) and probe (140 fs) pulses andcosh[1/(2f)] = √2. The coefficients n, m, and g are the nuclear eigenstates of the solid, black
electronic state of neutral IBr, the B electronic state of IBr⁻, and the X̃ 2+ electronic state ofIBr⁻, respectively. The term cm equals.

83
To understand how the wave packet on the B state is dressed by the pump pulse (i.e., how
the wave packet has been prepared following interaction between the ground state wave function
and the pump pulse with a defined width), Eqn. 4.7 is evaluated. This calculation gives the timedependent probability amplitude for the wave packet as a function of RI–Br and delay time, t.
Ξ

,Δ

∑

⁄

∆

∆

⁄

. Eqn. 4.7

Equation 4.7 is the expression for P(ε, t) when F2(t – t) = δ(t – t) and is projected onto the
RI–Br coordinate.
4.4.2 Discussion
The delayed rise in the photodetachment signal is surprising since direct, adiabatic
dissociation is typically a prompt process. As can be seen by the dotted, red trace in Fig 4.9(c),the calculated TRPES (Eqn. 4.5) predicts that photodetachment signal from photoexcited IBr⁻should appear well before the measured 200 fs. However, this is not the case. One likely
explanation is that there is a poor photodetachment cross section from the B state of IBr⁻ to theneutral eigenstates in the “molecular” (i.e., not fully dissociated) regime. These particular
calculations of the TRPES signal do not explicitly incorporate the photodetachment crosssection, and its quantitative determination is difficult. Therefore, we turn to a qualitativedescription of the electronic states of IBr⁻ and IBr in order to get a sense of the photodetachment
efficiency during IBr⁻ dissociation.
From the electronic structure calculations, the excess charge distribution for each of theelectronic states is determined for the six lowest energy electronic states, Fig. 4.10(a). The
rapidly changing charge distribution implies that the electronic character of all states of IBr⁻84(including the B state) drastically shifts as the I–Br length is increased. Since the B statecorrelates to the asymptotic products, I* + Br⁻, the charge has to be fully localized on the Br atlarge I–Br distances. However, the electronic character of the B state at 3.01 Å has more charge
on the I atom. It is not until 6 Å that the charge becomes localized on the Br. The changing
electronic character of the B state could lead to delayed photodetachment signal from Br⁻. Inother words, the photodetachment cross section to the neutral state might not be large enough todetect until the charge distribution has shifted to Br.

Figure 4.10 The calculated charge and quantum wave packet propagations for IBr⁻. (a) The
charge on the I atom for each electronic state of IBr⁻ as a function of RI–Br. (b) The Ξd is plotted
as a function of RI–Br at various time delays, t. The inset contains the integrated Ξd after charge
has localized on Br (RI–Br > 6 Å) as a function of t. The inset is a good approximation to theexperimental TRPES signal if the cross section for photodetachment is dependent on charge
localization.

85
To take this one step further, we look at the time-dependent probability amplitude for the
dressed wave packet on the B state, Ξ(R, t), Eqn. 4.7. The Ξ(R, t) is plotted as a function of
RI–Br at various delay times, t, in Fig. 4.10(b), where the propagating wave packet is a result of
promoting only the v = 0 wave function of the ground electronic state. The inset of Fig. 4.10(b)contains the integrated Ξ(R, t) for RI–Br > 6 Å. This integration assumes that thephotodetachment cross section is negligible until the charge has become localized on the Br atom
(RI–Br = 6 Å). The rise is delayed by ~160 fs and is reminiscent of the measured photoelectron
signal. This approach proved useful in a previous study of Cu–HOH.100,101 The integration of
Ξ(R, t) strongly suggests that the cross section for photodetachment is poor at small I–Br
distances and it isn’t until the charge becomes localized that the photodetachment signal can bemeasured.
4.5 TRPES of IBr⁻(CO2) B‐state photodissociation
Like the A′ 21/2 state studies, the addition of one CO2 solvent alters thephotodissociation dynamics following excitation to the B 2+ state. From previous B-state
photodissociation studies of IBr⁻(CO2), we know that the I* + Br⁻ channel is still available but
the lower energy channel, I⁻ + Br*, opens with the addition of one CO2 molecule, Eqn. 4.4a andb, respectively.30,33,43 Unlike the A′-state studies where the typical CO2 binding energy(~200 meV) is not enough to bridge the energy gap between electronic states (~300 meV), the B
state lies close to the lower energy a′ 21/2 electronic state (~130 meV), which leads to abundant
charge transfer. The experimental setup is identical to that shown in Fig. 4.8 for bare IBr⁻ withthe exception that the nearby a′ 21/2 electronic state (red curve) needs to be considered.

86
4.5.1 Results
The TRPES results for IBr⁻(CO2) following excitation to the B state are shown in Fig.
4.11(a) for various delay times, t = -0.2 – 1.2 ps. The spectra have four peaks that are a resultof photodetachment from Br⁻ (3.36 and 3.82 eV) and I⁻ (3.06 and 4.00 eV) to yield the groundand spin-orbit excited states of Br and I, respectively. The four spectral peaks appear with a timedelay and at a position that is close to the reference peak positions, Fig. 4.11(b). As before, theintegrated photoelectron signals for the Br (black circles) and I (white circles) features are fit to
an instrument response function convoluted with a step function. For the Br⁻ channel, the rise isinstantaneous and delayed by 250 ± 20 fs. As these Br peaks are growing in (t = 0.2 – 0.6 ps),they shift slightly (~50 meV) to lower binding energies until their peak positions are at thereference peak positions, where there is no additional shifting for the remaining time delays. The
delay in the photodetachment signal is consistent with the bare IBr⁻ B-state results, where theexperiment does not show photodetachment to Br⁻ in the “molecular regime” at early timedelays. Photodetachment signals from I⁻ appear much faster than the Br⁻ photodetachment
signals and has an instantaneous rise with a 50 ± 20 fs delay. The relative intensities of the I–
and Br⁻ photodetachment signals at t = 1.2 ps are 40% and 60%, respectively. Assuming equal
photodetachment cross sections for the I– and Br⁻ photoproducts, the relative yield for the charge
hop channel is 40%. This yield is consistent with previous photodissociation studies, Eqn.
4.4.30,43

87

Figure 4.11 Time-resolved photoelectron spectra of IBr⁻(CO2) photodissociation following
excitation to the B electronic state. (a) The 3D contour plots the spectra as a function of delaytime, t, and electron binding energy. (b) The reference spectrum shows transitions to Br, Br*,I, and I*, which are taken under the same experimental conditions. (c) The integrated signal fortransitions to Br (black circles) and I (white circles) along with the fits for each transition.

4.5.2 Discussion
The photodissociation of IBr⁻(CO2) following excitation to the B state results in theformation of two channels: the adiabatic channel I* + Br⁻ + CO2 and the charge hop channel I⁻ +Br* + CO2. A full interpretation of the results, which is similar to the charge-transfer model
developed earlier, again requires MD simulations of the photodissociation of IBr⁻(CO2). The
MD simulations are almost identical to the procedure described in Section 4.3.2 with the maindifference being that the anion at t = 0 is promoted from the ground electronic state to the B
state and not the A′ state. Also, these simulations are run for two ensembles at 200 and 250 K

88internal energy with each ensemble containing 1000 trajectories. As before, the outcome of the
dissociation trajectory depends critically on the position of the solvent molecule in the IBr⁻(CO2)cluster prior to photoexcitation, which in turn depends on the internal energy content of thecluster. Figure 4.5(a) shows the distribution of CO2 positions about the I–Br bond axis for boththe 200 and 250 K ensemble.
Results of two of the MD trajectories at 200 K are shown in Fig. 4.12. The red arrows
mark the delay time for solvent-induced charge localization on the I atom and the grey boxes
highlight the delay time (~ 160 fs) prior to the calculated full charge localization on Br⁻ in thebare IBr⁻ B-state studies. The left-hand plots, (a) – (c), are from a trajectory that stayed on the
B-state surface to yield I* + Br⁻ + CO2 and did not undergo a charge hop. The right-hand plots,(d) – (e), are the result of a trajectory that did undergo a state change from the B to a′ state,
which produces I⁻ + Br* + CO2. In both trajectories (panels (a) and (d)), the CO2 molecule isattracted to the Br atom for the first 100 fs before dissociating away from the Br atom. The
motion of the CO2 molecule decreases the energy gap between the B and a′ electronic states(panels (b) and (e)) and drastically alters the transient charge distribution (panels (c) and (f))
compared to bare IBr⁻ (Fig. 10(a)). In both of the MD simulations shown in Fig. 4.12, a thickblue line is used to highlight the electronic state on which the trajectory is evolving. The
solvent-induced charge redistribution and electronic energy modulation induces an electrontransfer in the right-hand MD trajectory. In panel (e), the trajectory hops electronic statesroughly at t = 150 fs, where the two states are very close in energy. However, the left-handtrajectory remains on the B state even though the energy gap becomes very small.

89

Figure 4.12 MD simulations of IBr⁻(CO2) following photoexcitation to the B electronic state at
200 K. (a) – (c) represent a trajectory that yields the adiabatic products: I* + Br⁻ + CO2, while(d) – (e) represent a trajectory that changes electronic states to yield I⁻ + Br* + CO2. Panels (a)and (d) plot the calculated Br–C distances as a function of t. The calculated electronic energies,(b) and (e), and charge on the I, (c) and (f), for the B (solid trace) and a′ (dotted trace) electronic
states are shown, where the thick traces follow the electronic state of the trajectory. The redarrow highlights the time the charge starts localizing on the I atom and the grey box indicates thetime prior to the calculated charge localization in bare IBr⁻.

The MD simulations effectively capture the mechanism for the charge hop channel,
where the influence of the CO2 molecule on both the energy gap between the B and a′ electronic
states and the charge redistribution is critical for the charge transfer to occur. In bothtrajectories, the charge is on the I atom for at least the first 160 fs, which would lead to the early
onset of the I⁻ photodetachment signal. According to the simulations for the adiabatic channel,

90
the charge localizes on I at early delay times before drastically switching to Br⁻ around t =160 fs, which poses the question: why isn’t a larger spectral shift seen in the photodetachment
signal as the electronic character shifts from being preferentially I⁻ (red arrow) to Br⁻ within the
B state?
To answer this question, the CO2 position in the IBr cluster prior to photodissociation ishighly correlated with the initial charge distribution and, because of it, is also correlated with the
trajectory outcome, shown in Fig. 4.13. For trajectories that undergo a state hop (white circles),the CO2 molecule is initially near the Br end. For comparison, the two trajectories shown in Fig.
4.12 are for small C–I–Br angles; however, the no-state hop trajectory shown in this figure does
not represent the majority of no-state hop trajectories. Instead, it represents the extreme example
of solvent-induced perturbation. The majority of the trajectories that remain on the adiabatic
surface (no state change) have the CO2 molecule positioned around the IBr waist or towards the I
atom. These trajectories would have different dynamics and experience less of a perturbation to
the chromophore; thus, the mechanism would be similar to that observed in bare IBr⁻ on the B
state. Therefore, there is minimal spectral shifting in the photodetachment signal in Fig. 4.11.

91

Figure 4.13 Geometries and charge distributions that favor a charge hop. The charge on the I
atom at t = 10 fs plotted as a function of the CO2 geometry relative to the I–Br bond axis. The
small angles correspond to the CO2 molecule being closer to the Br end (green ball), whereas thelarger angles have CO2 near the I end (purple ball). The white circles are trajectories that hop
electronic states (I⁻ product), and the red circles are trajectories that do not hop electronic states(Br⁻ product).

The MD simulations suggest that a subset of trajectories that start from a favorable initialgeometry undergo a transient period of charge localization on the I atom. Figure 4.14 contains ahistogram of the number of trajectories that exhibit this charge localization on I. The histogramis sharply peaked around t = 60 fs, and the inset reinforces this point by showing the integrated
total number of trajectories that show this behavior. The calculated time for charge to become
localized on the I atom agrees with the experimentally observed rise in signal associated with the
I– channel and is shown as the red arrow in Fig. 4.12.

92

Figure 4.14 Delay times for charge localization on the I atom. The number of trajectories that
result in localization of the charge on I for various delay times, t, are shown in the main graph.
The inset contains the integrated number of trajectories as a function of pump-probe delay time.
The time at which the charge becomes localized on I is similar to the pump-probe delay of theexperimentally observed I– photodetachment signal rise, t = 60 fs.

Even though the MD simulations capture the mechanism for charge transfer in theIBr⁻(CO2) B-state studies, they do not correctly yield the distribution of the two channels by
underestimating the charge hop channel. For simulations at 200 and 250 K, 22% and 28% of the
trajectories, respectively, undergo a charge transfer compared to 40% in the experiment. The
dependence of the trajectory outcome on the cluster position around the chromophore highlights
the influence that the CO2 solvent has on the dissociation dynamics. The discrepancy between
the MD simulations and the experimental results is most likely attributed to the classicaltreatment of the CO2 solvent molecule. In the simulations, the CO2 molecule is kept linear andcan only influence the charge distribution on the solute without any of the charge transferring toCO2. As was the case in the A′-state studies, the additional bending of CO2 as it approaches thesolute would help to delocalize the charge. If the CO2 molecule could leave with some of the93vibrational energy, then even more excess energy would be removed during the charge transfer,which would allow the state hop to occur at larger energy gaps. By treating CO2 more
realistically in the MD simulations, the number of trajectories that hop states would increase.
4.6 Conclusion
The influence of the CO2 molecule on the solute is observed throughout these timeresolved studies. When IBr⁻(CO2) dissociates following excitation to the A′ electronic state,around 95% of the photoproducts come from dissociation along the A′ electronic state to yield I⁻
or I⁻(CO2). About 5% of the products are from nonadiabatic charge transfer to the lower
electronic states (X̃ 2+ or A 23/2). The charge transfer to Br occurs around 350 fs, when the I–
Br separation is ~7 Å, and is a solvent-mediated process. At early times in the dissociation, theCO2 molecule approaches the I atom where the charge has already localized. As the I–C
distance decreases, the CO2 molecule becomes more bent and acquires more of the partial
charge. In 5% of the trajectories, CO2 sufficiently influences the solute that the energy gap
between the A′ and lower states is small enough that a charge transfer occurs and the excessenergy is removed with 0 – 2 quanta in the CO2 bend.
After excitation to the B state, bare IBr⁻ cleanly dissociates to I* + Br⁻, which are theadiabatic products, and the charge localizes onto Br in 200 fs. The lack of photodetachment
signal at early delay times is attributed to a poor photodetachment cross section in the“molecular” regime. With the addition of one CO2 solvent, a lower energy channel becomes
available, which yields I⁻ + Br* + CO2. The state hop channel appears much sooner (t = 50 fs)
than the adiabatic channel (t = 250 fs). The geometry of the cluster dictates the resulting
dynamics following excitation to the B state.

94
As in the A′-state studies, TRPES experiments reveal a solvent-mediated charge transfer
following excitation of IBr⁻(CO2) to the B state using the same charge-transfer model that wasused in the A′-state studies. If the CO2 molecule is near the Br end, then the CO2 solvent
sufficiently influences the electronic state energies and electronic character of the excited IBr⁻chromophore that the excess charge transfers to the I atom. When the CO2 molecule resides over
the waist of the I–Br bond axis or near the I end, then the solvent-induced perturbation isminimal and the dissociation dynamics are similar to those of bare IBr⁻. In both the A′- and Bstate dissociation dynamics, the MD simulations capture the essence of the charge-transfer
mechanism but underestimate the number of trajectories that undergo a state hop. By
representing CO2 more realistically (charge delocalization and bending), the yield for trajectories
that hop electronic states would increase. Together, experiment and theory point to a coherent
picture for solvent-driven electron transfer by CO2 in both dissociations.

95

Chapter V: Photoelectron Spectroscopy of ICN⁻

5.1 Motivation for Photoelectron Spectroscopy of ICN⁻
Photoelectron spectroscopy is a highly successful technique for measuring intrinsic
molecular properties, both thermochemical (such as ionization energies and bond strengths) andspectroscopic (such as electronic-state energies and vibrational frequencies).8 In addition,negative-ion photoelectron spectroscopy frequently offers a unique advantage: the ability toinvestigate neutral species in a different molecular geometry than that accessed by conventional
absorption spectroscopy.6,7 In this chapter, we use photoelectron spectroscopy of ICN– toinvestigate the ground state and the first five excited electronic states of ICN. Here, too,negative-ion photoelectron spectroscopy yields rich spectroscopic data that were inaccessible toprevious studies of neutral ICN.
The primary focus of this work is the ICN A continuum, which appears in direct
photoabsorption studies as a broad, unstructured peak extending from 210 nm to ~350 nm,102
composed of several unresolved excited states with differing dissociation dynamics. The ICN A
continuum has been the subject of many investigations, and we direct the reader to an excellent
review of the early work on gas-phase ICN by Zare and coworkers.103 Briefly, exciting the highenergy side of the A continuum (210 – 300 nm) results in two photofragmentation channels, andmany state-selective techniques have been used to characterize the dissociation products:102-108
ICN(1+) + h (4.66 eV)  ICN*  I(2P3/2) + CN(2+, Erot = 0.41 eV),

Eqn. 5.1

ICN(1+) + h (4.66 eV)  ICN*  I*(2P1/2) + CN(2+, Erot = 0.04 eV).

Eqn. 5.2

96Equation 5.1 is the lower energy dissociation channel and results in ground state I androtationally excited CN; in contrast, Eqn. 5.2 is higher in energy and yields spin-orbit excited I*
and rotationally cold CN. This complex photolytic product distribution suggested non-adiabatic
dynamics and stimulated intense interest in the electronic structure of ICN in the energy range of
the A continuum and, more specifically, in the evolution of its electronic structure during I–CN
dissociation.
The theoretical work of Morokuma and coworkers made a significant contribution to theinterpretation of the experimental data on ICN dissociation in the A continuum.109,110 They
performed high-level ab initio calculations of the ICN potential energy surfaces and molecular
dynamics simulations of A-continuum dissociation. The calculations showed that the A
continuum consists of three optically accessible excited states: 3 30+, and 1; two otherstates (32 and 30-) are spectroscopically strongly forbidden. Notably, the authors provided
high-level calculations of the conical intersection between the 30+ and 11 electronic states.
Despite many dynamics studies that qualitatively substantiate the calculations of
Morokuma and coworkers,102-108,111-120 direct spectroscopic information on the excited electronic
states of ICN is still lacking. The spectral congestion and selection rules of ICN absorption
spectroscopy preclude isolating the five excited electronic states in this energy region. The only
experimental evidence of accessing the dark 32 state is from Helbing et al., who studied ICN
photodissociation through the A continuum in a matrix.116 The authors observed emission
following ICN dissociation and argued that this emission comes from ICN recombination on the3

2 state. The 30- state has not yet been observed.

97
Photoelectron spectroscopy of ICN– provides a different set of selection rules thanabsorption spectroscopy of ICN; therefore, this technique allows us to characterize the groundstate as well as the five excited electronic states that make up the ICN A continuum. Like
dihalides, in forming ICN– the excess electron adds to the antibonding lowest unoccupied
molecular orbital (LUMO) of ground state ICN, which weakens and lengthens the I–CN bond.
Therefore, by starting at the anion equilibrium geometry, we interrogate the neutral electronic
state manifold at an elongated I–C bond length (2.65 Å), compared to that of the ICN groundstate (1.99 Å).121 The bond elongation places the anion in a configuration such that the first three
excited states of ICN are resolvable in the anion photoelectron spectrum. Also, this moleculargeometry gives the most intense Franck-Condon overlap in the conical intersection region, which
comprises the 30+ and 11 states.
We report the photoelectron spectrum of ICN– and ICN–(Ar) in the spectral region of the
ICN A continuum. Well-separated peaks yield vertical detachment energies (VDE) for the first
three electronic states (32, 31, and 30-) and the conical intersection region between the 30+
and 11 states. Recent calculations of the anion and neutral ground- and excited-state potential
curves assist in the assignment of the photoelectron spectrum.122 Additionally, we employ
thermochemical cycles to obtain the adiabatic electron affinity, EA(ICN), and the dissociationenergy of the anion ground state, D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–).
5.2 Experimental Methods
A brief summary of our experiment follows and a more thorough description can befound in Chapter II. In order to generate ICN– or ICN–(Ar), 15 psig of CO2 (99.8%, Scott
Specialty Gases, Inc.) or 40 psig of Ar (compressed, United States Welding, Inc.) gas passes over98
a solid sample of ICN (synthesized according to the procedure of Bak and Hillebert123). The
ICN– and ICN–(Ar) are created and extracted into the anion-laser interaction region with a WileyMcLaren–Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer. Slightly decreasing both the flux of electrons
directed towards the gas expansion and the pulse width of the gas expansion increases theICN–(Ar) signal. When optimizing for the Ar-solvated ion, we obtain a 2:1 ratio ofICN–:ICN–(Ar). There is no observable difference in the ICN– photoelectron spectrum for
expansion in CO2 or Ar.
The present experiment requires several different photodetachment wavelengths ranging
from 223 to 500 nm. Using the signal output of the OPO directly or doubling the signal
frequency in a BBO crystal, we generate the required photodetachment radiation, all withenergies of 0.1 – 1 mJ/pulse, and mildly focus it into the anion-laser interaction region. We
calibrate and focus the photoelectron spectrometer with the known EA and spin-orbit splitting of
the iodine atom by using I–,2,55 which is produced in our anion source concurrently with ICN–.
Because of the changing energy resolution, we measure discrete regions of the photoelectron
spectrum at varying laser wavelengths and then combine these sections into an overall spectrum.
5.3 ICN and ICN⁻ Electronic Structure Calculations
To support the assignments of the photoelectron spectrum, we perform a series of ICN
and ICN– electronic structure calculations at the MR-SO-CISD level of theory, using augmented
triple-zeta basis sets. The approach is based on earlier work of Morokuma and co-workers;109,110
the details of the electronic structure calculations as well as the resulting potential energy
surfaces for the anion and neutral ground states are presented elsewhere.122 Two-dimensionalsurfaces have been calculated for the ground states of ICN and ICN–, and 1D cuts through the

99
ICN excited-state potentials in the ICN and INC geometries were obtained at a fixed CN distanceof 1.16 Å. The first set of 1D cuts, Fig. 5.1(a), is plotted as a function of the distance between
the I and the center of mass of CN, R(I–CNCOM), and the second set of cuts, Fig. 5.1(b), is afunction of the angle between the vector R(I–CNCOM) and the CN bond, θ, with R(I–CNCOM) =3.2 Å. This angle is defined such that the ICN and INC geometries correspond to θ = 0° and
180°, respectively. The anion ground state curves in Fig. 5.1(a) and 5.1(b) are shifted from theneutral curves by -0.4 eV to obtain better agreement with the measured VDE of the 32 and 31transitions.

100

Figure 5.1 (a) Potential energy (V) is plotted as a function of the I to CN center of mass (COM)distance, R(I–CNCOM), in the linear (θ = 0°) geometry. The red circle highlights the conicalintersection region between the 11 and 30+ states. (b) V is plotted as a function of the angle
between the R vector and CN axis, θ, for R(I–CNCOM) = 3.2 Å. In both panels, the ground-state
wave function for the anion,(R, θ), is shown (dotted trace), and the grey box represents theFranck-Condon region. Also, the electronic ground state of the anion has been shifted by-0.4 eV to have better agreement with the measured transitions to the 32 and 31 states.

As noted in Fig. 5.1(b), the equilibrium structures of both ICN and ICN– are linear; andas is shown in Fig. 5.1(a), the equilibrium bond distance in the ground electronic state of ICN– is
Re,ICN-(I–CNCOM) = 3.27 Å or, equivalently, an I–C bond distance of 2.65 Å. This is roughly
0.7 Å longer than the corresponding distance in neutral ICN and shows that the photoelectron
spectra provide information on portions of the ICN potentials that are not accessible by simple
photoabsorption from the ground state of ICN. Based on these surfaces, the I–CN stretch and
ICN bend frequencies are 235.2 cm-1 and 70.3 cm-1, respectively, and De(X̃ 2+ I–CN–) is101
1.01 eV. Correcting for the zero-point energy, the calculated D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–) becomes 0.99 eV.
Table 5.1 summarizes the calculated equilibrium geometries, dissociation energies, andvibrational frequencies for the ground state of the anion and neutral ICN, along with the first two
excited states of ICN, 32 and 31. This table also provides a comparison between the calculated
values and previously measured values for the neutral ground state.
Table 5.1 Calculated spectroscopic properties of ICN– (X̃ 2+) and ICN (X̃ 1+, 32, and 31)from this work, along with previously measured values for ICN (X̃ 1+).
Re(I–C), Å

D0(I–CN), eV

I–CNstretch, cm-1

bend, cm-1

ICN (31)

calc

2.74

0.05

70.5

–

ICN (32)

calc

2.62

0.17

157

–

ICN (X̃ 1+)

calc

2.03

3.08

487.6

302

expt

1.99a

3.345b

485.8c304.5c

calc

2.65

0.99

235.2

70.3

ICN– (X̃ 2+)a. infrared and microwave spectroscopy121
b. high-resolution transient frequency modulated absorption spectroscopy 119
c. infrared spectroscopy124,125

For the present study, we must consider the vibrational properties of the excited states of
ICN. This is done by evaluation of the vibrational energies and wave functions based on the 1D
cuts that are plotted in Fig. 5.1. In particular, the potential energy curves in Fig. 5.1(a) are
interpolated using a cubic spline and stretch states are evaluated in a discrete variable
representation.97 For these calculations, an evenly spaced grid of points is used, which span from
0.3 to 8.0 Å with at least 500 grid points. The wave functions obtained from these 1D cuts arethen used to evaluate the 1D Franck-Condon factors for the I–CN stretch between the v″ = 0

102electronic ground state and the three lowest-energy bound states of ICN. According to theanalysis for the X̃ 1+ state, the Franck-Condon factor for the v″ = 0  v′ = 0 transition isessentially zero; instead, there is maximum overlap with the v″ = 0  v′ = 29 transition. For thetwo excited states, the geometry change compared to the anion electronic ground state is minor;
therefore, the 1D Franck-Condon analysis for the 32 and 31 states results in the v″ = 0  v′ =0 transitions being the strongest.
5.4 Results of Photoelectron Spectroscopy of ICN⁻
In anion-photoelectron spectroscopy, the photodetachment radiation promptly removes
an electron from the initially prepared anion; thus, in the spectra, “vertical” transitions to neutralelectronic states dominate without significant changes in the molecular geometry. Therefore, thecalculated potential energy curves of ICN– and ICN provide an initial prediction of thephotoelectron spectrum. Figure 5.1(a) and 5.1(b) show the wave function for the anion v″ = 0
ground state, (R, θ); in addition, the dotted, vertical lines and grey box highlight the FranckCondon region, which overlaps spatially with the 30+ and 11 conical intersection region. Thus,
photodetachment of ICN– will access and provide spectral information on the conical intersection
and the lower energy electronic states of ICN near the anion equilibrium geometry.

The portion of the photoelectron spectrum corresponding to the ICN ground electronic
state should be a broad envelope, comprising of a long unresolved progression of I–CN
vibrational states; the intensity of the vibrational origin transition is likely to be negligible.
Conversely, transitions to the first two excited electronic states of ICN, 32 and 31, should be
spectrally narrow with maximum intensity near the origin. The dissociative 30- state should

103
also be spectrally narrow because the potential energy curve is relatively flat in the FranckCondon region. Finally, transitions to the states making up the conical intersection should resultin a convolution of the spectral feature involving the bound (30+) and dissociative (11) state.
The experimental photoelectron spectrum of ICN– agrees well with these expectations, as
shown in Fig. 5.2. The spectrum is comprised of three segments taken with different
photodetachment laser wavelengths (λ = 223, 257, and 259 nm) and over different binding
energy ranges. The three spectral regions are scaled relative to each other by using the area
under the 32 and 31 peaks since these transitions yield sharp, well-defined features. Theenergy ordering of the neutral ICN calculated potential energy curves at Re,ICN-(I–CNCOM) =3.27 Å aids in the assignment of the peaks. The very broad envelope with a VDE ≈ 3.2 eV iscomprised of multiple, unresolved transitions to vibrational levels of the electronic ground stateof neutral ICN (X̃ 1+). The other four well-separated peaks are in complete accord with the
expectations above and represent the first time that all states within the ICN A continuum havebeen observed directly. Transitions to the first three excited states of ICN are at a VDE =4.513 ± 0.003 eV for the 32 state, VDE = 4.641 ± 0.003 eV for the 31 state, and VDE =5.025 ± 0.005 eV for the 30- state. The transition to the dissociative 30- state partially overlaps
spectrally with the asymmetric peak at a VDE ≈ 5.25 eV, which contains transitions to the 30+–

and 11 electronic states. A comparison with the photoelectron spectra of the dihalides I2 and–IBr further corroborates our photoelectron peak assignments,17,24,56 and this comparison is–shown with the photoelectron spectrum of IBr (Fig. 5.2 inset taken from Chapter III).

104

Figure 5.2 Composite photoelectron spectrum of ICN–. The broad peak at ~ 3.2 eV corresponds
to high-lying vibrational levels of the ground electronic state of ICN, X̃ 1+. The ground-state
origin lies more than 1 eV lower in binding energy and is not observed. The next three sharp
features are the first three excited states of ICN (, 31, and 30-). The broad asymmetric peakat ~5.25 eV consists of transitions to the conical intersection (CI) region (11 and 30+) and hassome overlap with the dissociative 30- electronic state. For comparison, the inset shows the–photoelectron spectrum of IBr .

––In the I2 and IBr photoelectron spectra, bands corresponding to the 32 and 31 states
contain resolved vibrational transitions.17,24,56 However, the 32 and 31 transitions in the ICN–
spectrum do not exhibit resolved vibrational structure (black trace in Fig. 5.3). The peaks
resulting from transitions to the ICN 32 and 31 states are significantly wider (42 and 33 meV,
respectively) than the experimental resolution (10 meV), indicating unresolved structure. Thereis a slight shoulder on the higher binding energy side of the 32 peak. To reduce possible
spectral congestion and resolve vibrational structure within these weakly bound electronic states,
we measure the photoelectron spectrum of ICN–(Ar), which yields a vibrationally colder ICN–.
The ICN–(Ar) spectrum of the 32 and 31 region is shown in red in Fig. 5.3: VDE (32) =105
4.540 ± 0.005 eV and VDE (31) = 4.672 ± 0.005 eV. The solvated spectrum shifts to higher
binding energy by about 30 meV and the peak widths narrow by almost a factor of two. The
peak widths of the 32 and 31 transitions are still somewhat greater (17 and 18 meV,
respectively) than the experimental resolution (10 meV); however, the shoulder on the 32 peak
becomes more prominent in the ICN–(Ar) spectrum and reinforces our analysis.

Figure 5.3 Composite photoelectron spectra of ICN– (black) and ICN–(Ar) (red) showing
transitions to the 32 and 31 states. Solvation by Ar results in a 30 meV shift to higher binding
energy and a sharpening of the peaks for both electronic states. The shoulder on the higher
binding energy side of the 32 feature becomes more prominent in the ICN–(Ar) spectrum andlies ~20 meV above the main peak, which is consistent with the calculated I–CN stretch
frequency of the 32 state.
5.5 Discussion
5.5.1 Photoelectron Spectrum of ICN⁻
We further interpret the five peaks in the ICN– photoelectron spectrum by considering theFranck-Condon overlap between the anion ground state and the neutral states as well as bydrawing parallels with the spectra of dihalides.17,24,56 The shape of the ICN (1+) peak resembles

106
–

–

that of the ground states in the I2 and IBr spectra, where the peaks are broad and the groundstate origins are not observed. In the spectra of the dihalides, the breadth of the ground stateenvelope results from a significant change in the I–X, X = I or Br, equilibrium bond distance
between the anion and neutral. The large bond elongation occurs because the highest-occupied
molecular orbital (HOMO) of the IX– ground-state electronic configuration is antibonding (*).
Removing this electron produces the ground electronic state of neutral IX with more bonding
character and a shorter I–X bond than in the corresponding anion. When this HOMO electron is
detached from the anion, there is minimal Franck-Condon overlap with the origin (v′ = 0) and––significant overlap with high vibrational levels of the neutral IX ground state. In the I2 and IBr

spectra, the maximum intensity from the ground-state envelope corresponds to ~ 30 quanta in the
I–I or I–Br stretch.24,56 Similarly for ICN, there is a large I–CN bond elongation upon anion
formation; therefore, the origin peak is not observable. Based on the 1D cuts through the ICN
ground state potential (black curve in Fig. 5.1(a)), the calculated maximum in the FranckCondon envelope corresponds to the vibrational level with 29 quanta in the I–CN stretch.
The next two higher binding energy peaks in the ICN– photoelectron spectrum
correspond to transitions to the ICN 32 and 31 electronic states (black trace in Fig. 5.3). For
these weakly bound states (our calculations give D0(32 I–CN) = 170 meV and D0(31 I–CN) =50 meV), the flatness of the potential energy curves in the Franck-Condon region and the smallchange in the I–CN equilibrium bond distance relative to the anion indicates that narrowtransitions are expected. Analysis of the Franck-Condon factors for the 1D I–CN stretch for bothof these excited states shows that the v″ = 0  v′ = 0 transitions are the strongest; therefore, weequate the difference in the VDE to the term energy splitting between the 32 and 31 states, T0

107= 0.128 ± 0.008 eV. Combining the measured VDEs with the EA(ICN) yields the term energiesof the 32 and 31 excited states, T0(32 ICN) = 3.16 (+.04/-.02) eV and T0(31 ICN) =3.29 (+.04/-.02) eV (Table 5.2). The large error bars arise from the uncertainty in the EA(ICN);
both the EA(ICN) and corresponding error bars are developed in a later section. The next
highest binding energy peak (VDE = 5.025 ± 0.005 eV) in the spectrum is the transition to thedissociative ICN (30-) electronic state. As expected, photodetachment of ground state ICN– to
ICN (30-) results in a narrow peak.
Table 5.2 Summary of experimentally determined values: dissociation energy (D0), adiabatic
electron affinity (EA), and term energies (T0).
D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–)

0.83 (+.04/-.02) eV

EA(X̃ 1+ ICN)

1.345 (+.04/-.02) eV

T0(32 ICN)

3.16 (+.04/-.02) eV

T0(31 ICN)

3.29 (+.04/-.02) eV

Finally, the highest binding energy peak occurs at a VDE ≈ 5.25 eV and is composed oftransitions to the bound 30+ and dissociative 11 electronic states that form the conicalintersection mentioned earlier. This asymmetric peak is the first direct observation of the ICN3

0+ and 11 conical intersection region, which is the major determining factor in the productdistributions following excitation to the dissociative A continuum. (Note that the feature that
results from accessing the conical intersection region also overlaps with transitions to the nearby3

0- state, which is not a contributor to the conical intersection.) The peak is too broad todetermine how each electronic state contributes to the shape. However, the measured VDE
agrees very well with the calculated energy of the conical intersection and corroborates the108earlier theoretical work. In addition, our results suggest a potentially useful strategy for futurestudies of ICN dissociation. By starting from the anion-ground electronic state and using aphotodetachment energy of 5.25 eV, it may be possible to prepare a starting ensemble of ICN
molecules with a thermal distribution of internal energy close to the conical intersection. Suchstudies would further test the theoretical framework and give new insights into ICN
photodissociation dynamics.
None of the peaks in the photoelectron spectrum of ICN– contain resolved vibrational
structure, which is somewhat surprising considering the analogous spectra of dihalides.17,24,56
The calculations show little to no change in either the C–N bond length or the ICN angle, θ,
between the anion and the three bound electronic states of ICN that we surveyed. Therefore, theI–CN stretch is expected to be the strongest active vibrational mode in the photoelectron
spectrum of ICN–. In a separable model, transitions corresponding to vbend = 0, 2, 4,… of thebending mode are also totally symmetric and, therefore, allowed. However, based on a 2D
treatment of the vibrations of electronic ground-state ICN, we find more than 100 totallysymmetric vibrational levels within a 0.2 eV window centered at the maximum in the FranckCondon overlap.122 The >100 vibrational levels resulting from the 2D calculations are in sharp
contrast with the five vibrational levels in the same energy range in the 1D calculations,reflecting the large stretch-bend coupling at this high level of vibrational excitation. As a result,the states in this energy region are highly mixed in character. Specifically, of the >100 states inthis energy region, roughly half have Franck-Condon intensity that is at least 3% of the mostintense transition, and half of these have intensity that is at least one third that of the most intensetransition. If hot bands were included in this calculation, the number of transitions that would

109
contribute to the spectrum would be much larger. It is for this reason that individual vibrations
are not spectrally resolved in transitions to the ground state of ICN.
In contrast, the separable model should hold true for the low vibrational levels populated
in the 32 and 31 excited states. Additionally, the calculated I–CN stretch frequencies of the3

2 and 31 states are 19 and 9 meV, respectively. Since, these vibrational frequencies are

greater than or comparable to our experimental resolution, we expect to resolve these vibrations.
–

In the photoelectron spectrum of IBr , where the I–Br stretch is the only vibrational mode, the3

2 (18 meV) and 31 (17 meV) vibrational progressions of neutral IBr are easily resolved (Fig.

5.2 inset).24,46,49 Yet, such progressions are not resolved in either of the ICN peaks, suggestingthat other contributions are congesting the spectrum.
The potential energy curves shown in Fig. 5.1(b) suggest that the spectral congestion
arises from population of the bending modes in the anion. The minimum energy geometry of theanion ground state is linear, but the potential energy does not significantly increase until the bend
angle exceeds 30°. This “softness” of the ICN– bending potential is responsible for the low
frequency of the bend vibration, 70.3 cm-1 (9 meV), in the anion-electronic ground state (seeTable 5.1). In contrast, the I–CN stretching frequency is much higher, 235.2 cm-1 (29 meV).
The vibrational temperature of the anion source is approximately 150 K, which corresponds to~ 97% of the ICN– population being in the first seven quanta of the bend with roughly equalamounts of population in v″bend = 0 and 1 (32% in each). This temperature also results in < 3%of the population in the first excited I–CN stretch state and ~ 0% of the population being in the
C–N stretch. In addition, the potential wells in both the 32 and 31 states are shallow, and thebending potentials are quite loose, which suggests very low frequencies for the excited-state110
bends. Therefore, photodetachment from thermally bend-excited anions results in a congested
photoelectron spectrum with the bend, stretch, and combination modes active, which yields
vibrationally unresolved transitions to the ICN 32 and 31 states. All of these speculations
suggest that additional cooling of the anion, via Ar tagging, should be advantageous.
5.5.2 Photoelectron Spectrum of ICN⁻(Ar)To reduce the spectral congestion in the photoelectron spectrum of ICN–, we employ acommon technique for ion cooling: argon tagging. Argon typically binds very weakly to anions
and thus cools them efficiently by collisions and by evaporation from hot cluster anions.20,21 The
photoelectron spectrum of ICN–(Ar), shown as the red trace in Fig. 5.3, is similar to the bare
ICN– spectrum except for a shift in the peak position and a reduction in peak width, thus
providing evidence that Ar minimally perturbs the anion. The peak shift to slightly higher
binding energy, 30 meV, is the difference in solvation energy between the anion and neutral
ICN, with the anion being more strongly solvated than the neutral. Assuming that the ICN(Ar)solvation energy is between the binding energy of HCN(Ar) (10 meV) and I2(Ar) (30 meV), we
deduce the ICN–(Ar) binding energy to be 40 – 60 meV.126,127 This estimate is consistent withthat of I2¯(Ar) (53 meV) and I–(Ar) (44 meV).17,18
Because of the reduced internal energy of the Ar-solvated anion, the photoelectron
spectrum of ICN–(Ar) is less congested than the bare ICN– spectrum. The photoelectron peaks
corresponding to transitions to the 32 and 31 states are substantially more narrow (see the red
spectrum in Fig. 5.3). The shoulder on the 32 transition becomes more prominent, and its
position relative to the peak maximum (20 meV) is consistent with the calculated I–CN stretch
frequency of the 32 state (19 meV). Both the narrowing of the peaks and the prominence of the

111shoulder on the 32 peak in the Ar-tagged spectrum strongly support our argument that the VDEof the 32 and 31 states correspond to their origin transitions. Thus, the VDE is directly related
to the term energies of the excited states, as given in the previous section. However, the 32 and31 transitions are still broader than the experimental resolution. The breadth in the excited statetransitions indicates that even though the ICN– within the Ar cluster is vibrationally colder thanthe bare species, its population is still not restricted to the v″ = 0 ground state. Also, we cannot
discount the additional intermolecular vibrations introduced by the Ar atom, which may broaden
the spectrum slightly.
Similarly, the Ar-tagging technique could simplify the spectrum in the conicalintersection region. Without Ar tagging, the photoelectron peak corresponding to the conicalintersection region is too broad to separate the contributions from transitions to the 30+ and 11states and to avoid overlap with the nearby 30- peak. Unfortunately, the high-photon energy
required to access the conical intersection region results in too many background photoelectrons,
making the signal-to-noise ratio in the Ar-tagged experiments prohibitively low at present.
5.5.3 EA(ICN) and D0(X 2+ I–CN⁻) Thermochemical Cycles
The large bond length change between the ground electronic states of ICN– and ICN
precludes the observation of the ICN ground-state origin in the photoelectron spectrum and, thus,
a direct determination of the electron affinity of ICN. Instead, thermochemical cycles yield boththe EA(ICN) and the D0(X̃2+ I–CN–), shown in Fig. 5.4 and below:
EA(ICN) = 1.345 (+.04/-.02) eV =VDEICND0(I–CN) – D0(X̃1I–CN)119,

Eqn. 5.3

112
D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–) = 0.83 (+.04/-.02) eV =VDEICND0(I–CN) – EA(CN)128.

Eqn. 5.4

Figure 5.4 Thermochemical cycles used to determine the EA(ICN) and D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–). The
two thermochemical cycles involve either EA(CN)128 or D0(X̃ 1+ I–CN)119 values from previous
measurements, along with the measured VDE ICNand calculated D0(I–CN) values
from this work.

These cycles include values from literature, D0(X̃ 1I–CN) = 3.345 eV and EA(CN) =3.862 eV,119,128 as well as the experimentally measured VDE ICNeVand thecalculatedD0(I–CN) = 0.05 eV values. The uncertainty in the calculated well depth
propagates through to the EA(ICN) and D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–) values. As can be seen in Fig. 5.3, the3

1 well depth must be greater than or equal to the difference between the measured 31 origin(center of the 31 transitions) and the high-binding energy edge of the 31 transitions. Thisdifference conservatively places the lower bound of the well depth at 20 meV. The upper bound113
compensates for our uncertainty in the calculated 31 well depth, thus, giving an uncertainty of+0.04 eV/-0.02 eV.
This work provides the first determination of the EA(ICN) and D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–),summarized in Table 5.2. The D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–) value is consistent with, but more accurate than,the calculated value of 0.99 eV reported in Table 5.1. A particularly interesting observation isthe dramatic I–CN bond weakening that occurs upon electron addition to neutral ICN. Thisaddition changes the I–CN dissociation energy by a factor of four: anion D0(X̃ 2+ I–CN–) =0.83 eV and neutral D0(X̃ 1+ I–CN) = 3.345 eV.119 This substantial bond weakening, brought
about by the addition of a single antibonding electron, can be rationalized by the strong
interaction of the iodine p orbital with the CN  bonding orbital, which forms a high-energy *antibonding LUMO in ICN.122 This destabilization of the bond caused by the addition of an
antibonding electron holds true for both ICN and dihalides, permitting the many comparisonsemployed in this work. However, the qualitative comparison does not transfer quantitatively to
the EA and D0 due to the CN orbital, which is not present in the dihalides, strongly interactingwith the pI orbital.
5.6 Conclusion
We report the photoelectron spectra of ICN– (and ICN–(Ar)), which provide acharacterization of the electronic structure of ICN at an extended I–CN bond length that is notaccessible by direct ICN photoabsorption. One advantage of this technique is that the electronic
states contained within the well-studied A continuum of ICN are largely resolved, specificallythe first three excited electronic states of ICN and the conical intersection region between the

1143

0+ and 11 states. In addition, MR-SO-CISD calculations of the potential energy surface of the

ICN– ground state provide benchmark spectroscopic parameters for the anion. Together, thephotoelectron spectrum of ICN– and the results of the calculations allow us to determine theelectron affinity of ICN, EA(ICN) = 1.345 (+.04/-.02) eV, and the dissociation energy of theanion, D0(X̃2+ I–CN–) = 0.83 (+.04/-.02) eV. In addition to the reported photoelectron spectrumof ICN–, we observe low-kinetic energy electrons that do not vary with photon energy over therange from 2.5 to 4.2 eV; the basis for these indirect photodetachment products is discussed in
Chapter VI.27

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Chapter VI: CN Rotation as an Efficient Energy Sink

6.1 Motivation for CN Rotation
The photoelectron spectrum of ICN– is reported in the previous chapter and demonstrates
observed transitions that are anticipated and easily identified. In addition to these direct features,
we observe unexpected autodetachment features at low kinetic energy. These features are
structured and occur at ~0, ~45, ~70, and ~150 – 200 meV of kinetic energy. When the photon
energy is varied from 2.5 – 4.2 eV, the positions of the features do not shift, which is notcharacteristic of direct detachment. We gain insight into these low-kinetic energy features
through additional investigations of the ICN– excited state (21/2) that is isoenergetic with the
ICN ground state. More specifically, we turn to publications from our group and collaboratorson the photodissociation dynamics and electronic state energies of ICN–.27,122,129
Experimental findings of the ICN– photodissociation dynamics (λ = 500 nm) on themostly dissociative 21/2 state result in primarily I– + CN. However, photodissociation of
ICN–(Ar) on the 21/2-like state yields not only I– but recombined ICN– as well as I–(Ar).27,129
With just one Ar atom solvating the chromophore, one anticipates the results to mimic the bareanion because Ar is such a weakly bound solvent (~40 – 60 meV as discussed in Chapter V).
The Ar atom is expected to “boil” off since the photoexcited ICN–(Ar) has energy in excess ofthe corresponding I– + CN + Ar asymptote. Instead, as more Ar atoms are added to the ICN–
chromophore, the recombined and highly solvated I–-based products continue to be observed.
These results do not agree with previous studies on small dihalide clusters since we would haveexpected an evaporative ensemble mechanism to leave the photoproducts bare and the116
dissociative nature of the 21/2 state would only yield photodissociated fragments.30,43,130 The
major difference between the previous dihalide studies and these ICN– studies is the addition ofan extra atom; we now have a triatomic molecule. The extra degrees of freedom in a triatomic
molecule provide additional pathways for energy flow. The ICN– photodissociation results alongwith calculations determine that the energy sink is CN rotation.
In order to conclude that CN rotation is the major sink for excess energy, we havecharacterized the 21/2 surface and propagated the ground-vibrational wave function of ICN– (X̃)
on this first optically active surface (21/2).27,122 The dissociative 21/2 surface for ICN– iscalculated to have a metastable well depth of ~270 meV at an ICN angle of 24°, where linear
ICN corresponds to an angle of 0° and INC corresponds to an angle of 180°. Thus, thepreferential geometry is not linear for the 21/2 state as it is for the ICN– ground state (2+).
Therefore, as linear ICN– is promoted from the ground electronic state of ICN– to the 21/2 state,
the excited anion resides on a surface that is preferentially bent and dissociative in nature. At t =0, the wave function has amplitude that covers ~50° of the ICN bend coordinate, as seen in Fig.
6.1.27 Within 180 fs, the wave function has not only propagated along the I–CN coordinate but
has also quickly spread along the entire ICN bend coordinate, thus making the [I–CN–] complex,
effectively, a free rotor by an I–CN separation of 7 Å. The quantum dynamics calculations resultin an abundant amount of energy transfer into CN rotation as ICN– dissociates.

117

Figure 6.1 The propagated wave function on the 21/2 surface.27 The ground-vibrational wave
function of ICN– 2+ is promoted to the 21/2 surface, where the wave function begins topropagate at t = 0. The contour plot shows the wave function at t = 0, 180, and 360 fs. The ICN
and INC linear geometries are θ = 0° and 180°, respectively.

This efficient energy transfer explains why the highly solvated I–-based products exist
when the ICN–(Ar)n, n = 1 – 5, dissociates on the 21/2-like surface and supports one atom caging
in the photodissociation of ICN–(Ar). Since excess energy is being removed by CN rotation, theAr atom remains bound to the I– fragment as the ICN– moiety dissociates. A similar rotational
argument holds true for the one atom caging mechanism; however in this case, the Ar atom must
be positioned on the CN end of the ICN–(Ar) , thus allowing a collision to occur with thedissociating CN. This collision reverses the direction of the dissociating CN and allows forrecombination on the 21/2 state, where the metastable anion is “trapped” sufficiently long for aradiative transition to the ground state of ICN–. Without CN rotation, there is too much energy

118
for the ICN– to remain in the shallow (~270 meV) well of the 21/2 state and the “recombined”
fragment would just dissociate. A high degree of CN rotation is strongly supported by the baredissociation quantum dynamics calculations and offers an explanation for the photodissociation
dynamics observed.
These photodissociation results show that anisotropy of the 21/2 surface allows forexcess energy to be efficiently coupled into CN rotation. The autodetachment features, which
are observed along with the direct detachment signal, appear because ICN– can store large
amounts of energy as CN rotation. In addition to the bare anion exhibiting these autodetachment
features, the mechanism for autodetachment is not destroyed by solvation with one Ar atom or
CO2 molecule. As the rest of the chapter will show, these low-kinetic energy features only occur
when the photodetachment energy is equivalent to an energy that has Franck-Condon overlap
between the ICN– 21/2 state and the ICN 1+ state.
6.2 Experimental Methods
This experimental section follows almost exactly from the 5.2 Experimental Methods
section. Only the additional procedures to those described earlier are mentioned here. To
produce the ICN–(CO2) anions, 15 psig of CO2 gas flows over a solid sample of ICN. The ionsare created in a similar manner to ICN– and ICN–(Ar). To obtain the ICN–(CO2) spectra, theICN–(CO2) ion is overlapped with the laser pulse in the anion-laser interaction region. The
spectra of low-kinetic energy features are taken over a broad wavelength range: 295 – 500 nm(2.5 – 4.2 eV). These studies require both the 355-nm pumped OPO and the 532-nm pumped
dye laser.

119
To obtain a cross-section measurement of the low-kinetic energy features for ICN–, it iscritical to normalize all of the ICN– spectra over this broad energy range. Both fluctuations in
the laser power and ion intensity need to be considered. The spectra are scaled for the average ofthe laser power before and after each image and background. To correct for the ion instability,
the reported spectra are alternatively taken with a spectrum at 266 nm under the same ion
conditions. The 266-nm ICN– spectrum is similar to the “normal” photoelectron spectrum andcontains sharp 32 and 31 transitions and serves as our reference spectrum. The area underthese sharp features is used to correct for ion fluctuations. We correct for short-term ion
instability by alternating at least two times between the 266-nm spectrum and the low-kinetic
energy spectrum. To highlight the low-kinetic energy features, all the spectra in this chapter areplotted as a function of electron kinetic energy and not the usual electron binding energy.
6.3 Results of Autodetachment from ICN⁻, ICN⁻(Ar), and ICN⁻(CO2)
When ICN– is photodetached using a 3.7 eV photon, we observe discrete, low-kinetic
energy electrons in addition to direct detachment. The low energy peaks do not correspond to
any known excited states of ICN and, moreover, do not shift in their kinetic energy as the photon
energy is changed. The measured spectrum is shown in Fig. 6.2. The blue box highlights the
portion of the spectrum dominated by low-kinetic energy electrons. At higher kinetic energy, thebroad ICN (1+) peak dominates the spectrum, which is a result of direct detachment.

120

Figure 6.2 Photoelectron spectrum of ICN– plotted as a function of electron kinetic energy. The
spectrum ( = 335 nm, 3.7 eV) shows low-kinetic energy features on top of a broad background.
This background corresponds to the direct photodetachment of ICN– to the ground state of ICN.

As the photon-energy is varied from 2.5 to 4.2 eV, similar autodetachment features
persist, shown in Fig. 6.3. The electron kinetic energy shown in Fig. 6.3(a) is identical to thathighlighted by the blue box in Fig. 6.2. The 3.7-eV spectrum shown in Fig. 6.3(a) is the cut
identified by the horizontal dashed line in Fig. 6.3(b). The contour plot, Figure 6.3(b), shows the
low-kinetic energy features over the first 250 meV of kinetic energy for photon energies ranging
from 2.5 to 4.2 eV. In the contour plot, the photodetachment from I– appears in two of thespectra. This is a result of photofragmentation and is discussed later. As can be seen in Fig.
6.3(c), the low-kinetic energy features have a bimodal distribution peaking at photon energies of
3.7 and 3.25 eV. For these energies, where the cross section is the largest, the structuredelectron features extend for approximately 500 meV. However, higher autodetachment features
lose intensity when the laser energy varies significantly from 3.7 or 3.25 eV. Therefore we focus
on the first four peaks: ~0, ~45, ~70, and ~150 – 200 meV. While the fourth peak (~150 – 200

121meV) does have a 50 meV shift in peak position, this shift is rather insignificant given that thelaser photon energy is shifted 1.7 eV.

Figure 6.3 Relative cross section of low-kinetic energy features from autodetachment of ICN–.
(a) Photoelectron spectrum of ICN– ( = 335 nm, 3.7 eV) as a function of electron kinetic
energy. (b) The 3D contour plot of the photoelectron spectrum of ICN– ( = 2.6 – 4.1 eV) as afunction of electron kinetic energy. The two I– peaks are a result of ICN– photofragmentation.
(c) Relative cross-section for peak 1 showing at least two maxima at 3.25 and 3.7 eV.

The structured autodetachment features are a result of a one-photon process, which isdetermined from a power-dependence study. Furthermore, the ejected electrons are isotropic in
the image, strongly suggesting that the electrons are the result of an indirect-detachment
process.131 At these laser energies, the ejection of low-kinetic energy electrons is not only indirect competition with direct detachment, but also with photofragmentation:

122
Autodetachment: ICN– + h(2.5 – 4.2 eV) → ICN–* → ICN(1+)** + e– (low-kinetic energy),
Photofragmentation: ICN– + h(2.5 – 4.2 eV) → ICN–* → I– + CN or I + CN–,
Direct Detachment: ICN– + h(2.5 – 4.2 eV) → ICN(1+)* + e–.
All three processes coexist in our spectra. The autodetachment channel leaves the ICN
very hot with internal energies in the range of 1.15 – 2.85 eV; we represent the resulting neutral
as ICN**. The excitation energy (2.5 – 4.2 eV) is below the ICN ground state dissociationthreshold. As a result, the autodetachment channel must yield ground state ICN in addition to
low-kinetic energy electrons. The photofragmentation process can be detected when the photon
energy and flux are great enough to both photodissociate ICN– and photodetach the electron fromone of the photofragments, I– (3.06 eV) or CN– (3.86 eV).55,128 The photodetachment from I– isobserved in Fig. 6.3 and is identified. The I– peak indicates how the spectral features should shift
with photon energy if the features are photon-energy dependent. Finally, the direct detachment
channel results in the broad feature lying at higher kinetic energies, as is shown in Fig. 6.2.
The ICN– autodetachment features observed in Fig. 6.2 and 6.3 are also present when Ar
or CO2 solvates ICN–. As is shown in Fig. 6.4, there is remarkable similarity between the
autodetachment peaks in the bare and solvated spectra. At high electron kinetic energies, there isa broad background, which is the ground state of ICN, ICN(Ar), or ICN(CO2). In addition to thebroad background, the sharp features in the solvated spectra and the bump in the bare spectrum
around 0.7 eV result from I– photodetachment. At low electron kinetic energies, the first threepeaks in the ICN–(Ar) and ICN–(CO2) do not shift compared to the bare spectrum. However, thefourth peak does have some minimal shifting, which is most likely related to the shift that was123seen in Fig. 6.3(b). Overall, the presence of the Ar or CO2 solvent minimally perturbs thechromophore and does not affect the mechanism by which ICN– autodetachment occurs.

Figure 6.4 Photoelectron spectrum of ICN– (black), ICN–(Ar) (blue trace), and ICN–(CO2) (green
trace) plotted as a function of electron kinetic energy. The spectrum ( = 330 nm, 3.8 eV) shows
low-kinetic energy features on top of a broad background. This background corresponds to thedirect photodetachment of ICN– to the ground state of ICN. The sharp feature (or bump) near
0.7 eV in the blue and green trace (or black trace) results from the photodetachment of I–.

6.5 Discussion of Autodetachment Features
To better understand the low-kinetic energy features and bimodal cross-section, we lookto previous studies of anionic autodetachment, where either a statistical model (thermionicemission) and/or a quantum model is used to explain the autodetachment features. In a statisticalmodel, the density of states is sufficiently high to allow for a fast redistribution of energy before
ejecting the electron, such as in C18– and (OCS)2–. 132‐134 In these examples, the ejected electrons
are statistically spread over a broad kinetic energy range and are fairly independent of the photon

124energy used. A purely statistical model cannot be used to explain the ICN– autodetachment
mechanism because the low-kinetic energy features are structured.
Another type of autodetachment observed by Continetti and coworkers as well as Sanovand coworkers results in discrete, low-kinetic energy features.131,135 Continetti and coworkers
observed autodetachment features from O

clusters (n = 2 and 3) when using different

excitation energies (λ = 532 and 355 nm).135 In this work, dissociation to form O2⁻ isenergetically accessible. In some of the photodissociated clusters, the O2⁻ is vibrationally hot(v″ > 4) and exceeds the energy of O2 (v′ = 0) + e–, leading to autodetachment. These
autodetachment features are at discrete energies that are consistent with the spacing of O2⁻ (v″ =5, 6, 7) → O2 (v′ = 0) + e⁻, and the position of the features are independent of the cluster size or
photon energy used. The O

cluster dissociates to vibrationally hot O2– (v″ = 5, 6, 7) and theexcess energy is removed by the other fragments. Similarly, Sanov and coworkers measure
autodetachment features from photoexcited (λ = 355nm) O (H2O)m clusters when thephotodissociated O2⁻ exceeds (v″ > 3).131 In this study, the autodetachment features are the sameas those measured by Continetti and coworkers, where again the features are at discrete energies
and independent of the cluster size.
Another example of autodetachment leading to discrete, low-kinetic energy features wasobserved by Wang and coworkers following a photoelectron spectroscopy study of doubly
charged anions, ⁻O2C(CH2)nCO2⁻.136 The photodetachment of an electron led to decarboxylationof the anion to yield •(CH2)nCO2⁻; this singly charged anion then underwent a dissociative
autodetachment process [(CH2)n + CO2 + e⁻] or a hydrogen-transfer-induced electron detachment[CH2=CH(CH2)n-2CO2H + e⁻] to produce the autodetachment features. The autodetachment

125
features do not shift in kinetic energy as the photon energy is changed. For n = 2, the authors
argue that the dominant pathway is the dissociative autodetachment process and the excessenergy is removed by the vibrational modes that are not relevant to the reaction coordinate. The
quantum model used to explain the O

clusters and ⁻O2C(CH2)nCO2⁻ autodetachment features

cannot be exactly used to explain the ICN– autodetachment mechanism because the neutral ICN
molecule following electron photodetachment is energetically excited but below the I + CN + e⁻
dissociation energy. However, the concept of disposing of excess energy into other degrees of
freedom can be used to explain the ICN– autodetachment mechanism.
We use these previous autodetachment results along with the knowledge that CN has thecapability of storing ample amounts of energy in CN rotation to propose a quasi-thermionicemission mechanism for autodetachment.27 The ICN– excitation energies that lead to
autodetachment are similar to the energies used in the photodissociation of ICN–, where the ICN–
dissociates on the 21/2 surface. As mentioned earlier, this 21/2 excited state is energeticallyclose to the ground state of ICN at certain geometries. Figure 6.5 contains the calculated
potential energy curves of ground state ICN (X̃ 1+) (black trace) as well as the ground state(X̃ 2+) (dark cyan trace) and first optically active state (21/2) (green trace) of ICN–. These
curves are plotted as a function of the I to CN center of mass (COM) distance. The
corresponding I–NC curves are plotted as a dashed curve. The red box highlights the range ofphoton energies that create the low kinetic energy electrons. Again, these energies are below the
ICN asymptote but high enough to access the neutral ICN ground state. Additionally, most of
the energies allow for the formation of both ICN and INC.

126

Figure 6.5 Some of the potential energy curves for ICN– and ICN are plotted as a function of the
I to CN center of mass (COM) distance, R(I–CNCOM), in the linear (θ = 0 and 180°) geometries.
The solid curves indicate the I–CNCOM (θ = 0°) geometry, and the dashed curves indicate the I–
NCCOM (θ = 180°). The red box highlights the region where autodetachment occurs.

Since the neutral molecule cannot dissociate, the triatomic must retain the excess energy,
which is between 1.15 and 2.85 eV of internal energy. The autodetachment features along with
the ICN– photodissociation results strongly suggest that the ICN– is being excited into theoptically active (or “bright”) 21/2 state where it then couples to a “dark” state. This “dark” stateof the anion must have a high density of states, which allows it to act as its own heat bath. The
only way to obtain a sufficient density of states is for the CN entity to be rotationally hot, where
it can act as a hindered or free rotor interacting with I–. It is from this bath-like molecule that thequasi-thermionic emission occurs to the ICN ground state, leaving the neutral molecule very hot.
This proposed mechanism is reminiscent of thecluster and ⁻O2C(CH2)nCO2⁻ studies because

the extra energy is being deposited into the rotation of the CN, which is efficiently disposing ofexcess energy in discrete rotational energies. Since the potential energy surface of the “dark”

127
state is not known, coupling to the neutral ground state is not understood from a quantum viewand the features cannot be assigned at this time.
This autodetachment process must occur with some time delay since it is an indirectprocess that allows for energy to be redistributed throughout the molecule.137 This process
violates the Born-Oppenheimer approximation to produce low-kinetic energy electrons with hot
neutral counterparts. The bimodal cross section suggests that there are either two “bright” statesor two “dark” states that couple with the “bright” state. In either explanation, the rotation of the
CN is vital for disposing of excess energy and allowing coupling between the excited anionicstate and the neutral ground state. With the addition of solvent, Ar or CO2, the mechanism forthe autodetachment features is not disrupted.
6.5 Conclusion
In additional to direct photodetachment of ICN–, we observe autodetachment features at
discrete energies (~0, ~45, ~70, and ~150 – 200 meV) over a 1.7 eV excitation range. These
autodetachment features are due to the ability of CN rotation to sequester large amounts ofinternal energy in photoexcited ICN–. The ICN– acts as its own heat bath to eject quasi-thermal
electrons to produce neutral ICN, in which the CN can behave as a hindered or free rotor. Thisquasi-thermionic emission of electrons is still present when an Ar atom or CO2 molecule solvates
the ICN–. The role that CN rotation plays in both the quasi-thermionic emission mechanism andthe ICN– photodissociation is critical to explain the observed results.

128

Chapter VII: HO3⁻ and Future Projects

7.1 Motivation for HO3⁻
The OH radical is the most common atmospheric oxidizer and plays a role in the
distribution and concentration of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.138,139 Therefore, there isa large effort by the scientific community to accurately measure the OH radical concentration. In
addition to the pure OH radical concentration, it is essential to know if the OH radical can be
temporarily trapped or form an intermediate species with other molecules, such as molecularoxygen (O2), nitric acid (HONO2), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).140 The association reaction of
OH radical with O2 yields hydrogen trioxy radical (HO–OO). HO3 has attracted considerable
attention because of its potential role as an atmospheric sink of the OH radical and intermediate
in atmospheric reactions. Depending on the HO–OO bond strength, the HO3 radical may trap the
OH radical, which would affect kinetic modeling of atmospheric processes.
To date, there is disagreement regarding the bond strength of HO–OO and the relevancethat it has in the atmosphere. Recent experiments by Lester and coworkers have resulted in an
upper bound to the dissociation energy of trans-HO–OO, D0(trans-HO–OO) < 5.3 kcal/mol(0.23 eV).140 This upper bound is inferred from infrared action spectroscopy using an IR-UV
double resonance technique where laser induced fluorescence is detected from dissociated OH
radicals. Because the D0(HO–OO) estimate is determined by conservation of energy and theenergy partitioned to the O2 is argued to be small, they suggest that the dissociation energy isclose to their upper bound. Using a D0(trans-HO–OO) = 5.3 kcal/mol, Lester and coworkers
argue that 25% of the OH radical is being trapped by O2 near the tropopause.

129
Experimental results from Sims and coworkers conclude that the D0(HO–OO) is below
the upper bound determined by Lester and coworkers but not close to the upper bound assuggested by Lester and coworkers. Instead, the kinetics measurements by Sims and coworkers
result in D0(HO–OO) = 3 kcal/mol (0.13 eV); thus, the percentage of OH radical bound to the O2
would be less than 0.1% at all altitudes in the atmosphere.141 Their experiments measure thedecay of the OH radical in the presence of O2 by detecting laser induced fluorescence of the OH
radical in a fast flow reactor. However, it is not clear from Sims and coworkers studies that theresults are due to HO3 but could be a result of the Van der Waals complex, OH---O2, or the cis
isomer. To add to the D0 inconsistency, earlier calculations by Stanton and coworkers suggest apossible barrier to the OH + O2 association reaction, which could complicate the interpretation of
the Sims experimental results.142 However, Stanton is not confident in the calculated barrierheight and suggests that the calculated barrier is too large.143 These experimental and theoreticalresults strongly suggest that other approaches are needed to determine the HO–OO dissociationenergy, which is still an atmospherically important value and not yet resolved.
The photoelectron spectrum of HO3⁻ could help settle the debate over the binding energyof the HO–OO molecule. The principal difference between the HO3⁻ anion and the HO3 neutral
molecule is the significant lengthening of the central O–O bond in the anion compared to theneutral molecule; therefore, the photoelectron spectrum is expected to be dominated by thevibrational progression of the central O–O stretching mode.143,144 If the HO–OO vibrational
progression within neutral HO3 can be resolved, then the vibrational levels can be mapped out
and the dissociation energy determined.

130
In addition to requiring the vibrational resolution, there are at least three more difficulties
that must be overcome before the dissociation energy of HO–OO can be determined fromnegative-ion photoelectron spectroscopy. First, the anion needs to be made in our anion-sourcechamber. Second, the anion that will most likely be made is the cis isomer because the transisomer is not predicted to be stable.143,144 For neutral HO3, the trans isomer is calculated to belower in energy than the cis form by ~70 cm-1 (0.2 kcal/mol).145 Therefore, if the D0(cis-HO3)
can be determined with photoelectron spectroscopy of cis-HO3⁻, then the calculated change inenergy (E = 0.02 kcal/mol) between the cis- and trans-HO3 isomers can be used to determine
the D0(trans-HO3):
D0(trans-HO3) = D0(cis-HO3) + E.

Eqn. 7.1

Third, other vibrational modes (e.g., stretching of the terminal bonds or bending motions) may be
active, which could lead to further congestion of the spectrum, and a full simulation is needed todetermine the extent of contributions from other vibrational modes.
In the remainder of this chapter, the cis-HO3⁻ isomer is discussed along with its isomers.
The current photoelectron spectrum is presented, which is most likely not from cis-HO3⁻ butfrom another isomer. Our initial attempts for making HO3⁻ continue to give the same
photoelectron spectrum, which does not contain photodetachment signal from cis-HO3⁻. These
attempts include a variety of mixtures and combinations of precursor gases where the gas pulse
is ionized by a beam of electrons and/or a pulsed electrical discharge. The chapter then proceeds
to discuss improvements and modifications made to the anion source, which are incorporated in
an attempt to make the cis-HO3⁻ anion. Even though these changes have yet to generate the cis-131HO3⁻ anion successfully, the additions to the anion source capabilities will benefit futurechemical syntheses.
7.2 Current Results and Experimental Difficulties in Making HO3⁻
7.2.1 Expected Photoelectron Spectrum of cis‐HO3⁻
The expectations for the HO3⁻ photoelectron spectrum are presented prior to showing themeasured spectrum. The predicted spectrum is based upon changes in the equilibriumgeometries between the anion HO3⁻ and neutral HO3. The calculated equilibrium structures(CCSD(T)/aug-pVTZ) of HO3⁻ and HO3 radical are shown for the cis and trans isomers in Fig.
7.1.144 The specific energies for these isomers vary depending on the level of theory used, andthese structures should only be used qualitatively.144,146 According to the HO3⁻ calculations, thetrans isomer of the anion is a transition state and does not have a local minimum; therefore, we
expect to make only the cis isomer of HO3⁻. The largest geometry difference between the anion
and neutral cis isomer is the central O–O bond distance, R(O–O) = 0.17 Å. There are someminor changes in the terminal O–O bond length and HOO angle. Overall, the dominant peaks inthe photoelectron spectrum of cis-HO3⁻ should arise from the central O–O stretching
progression.

132

Figure 7.1 Calculated cis- and trans-HO3 structures for the anion and radical species. These
calculations are performed with CCSD(T)/aug-pVTZ level of theory.144

The cis-HO3⁻ isomer is not the global minimum because OH– solvated by O2 (3) is
lower in energy.147 Figure 7.2 depicts the qualitative potential energy curves for HO3⁻, OH–(O2),and neutral HO3. These curves are based upon calculations and experimental values. The
OH–(O2) asymptote is 22.6 kcal/mol (0.98 eV) lower in energy than the cis-HO3⁻ asymptote.148
The OH–(O2) cluster anion is calculated to have a D0(OH⁻–O2) of 2.7 kcal/mol (0.117 eV), andthe cis-HO3⁻ isomer is calculated to have a well depth of 15.4 kcal/mol (0.67 eV).147 If theOH–(O2) cluster anion is photodetached, it will have a photoelectron peak that resembles
photodetachment from the ground state of OH– (1) (1.83 eV) but shifted to a higher binding

133
energy, which is determined by the difference in the O2 solvation energy between the anion andneutral species.149,150 Based upon the energetics in Fig. 7.2, the electron affinity of cis-HO3 isestimated to be between 1.0 and 1.5 eV. Therefore, to learn about the central O–O stretch and,
consequently, the HO–OO dissociation energy, the photoelectron spectrum of cis-HO3⁻ must be
measured with a photon energy in the 1.5 – 2 eV range. The cis-HO3⁻ photoelectron signal
should be readily distinguishable from the OH–(O2) photoelectron signal.

Figure 7.2 Qualitative potential energy curves for cis- and trans-HO3, cis- HO3⁻, and OH–(O2).

7.2.2 Current Results
Two photoelectron spectra of an ion of mass-to-charge ratio 49 are shown in Fig. 7.3 andare plotted as a function of electron binding energy (eBE). The figure shows two photoelectron
spectra taken at different wavelengths of laser light, λ = 532 nm (red spectra) and 355 nm (blue134
spectra). Both spectra show a dominant peak at an eBE of ~1.95 eV, which results from theOH–(O2) complex; this peak is shifted by +120 meV from bare OH⁻. The three other peaks,
which are highlighted by arrows in Fig. 7.3, are only observed in the 532-nm spectrum and are
reproducible when taking the spectrum with a laser wavelength of 532 nm. The assignments forthese peaks are tentative and further studies must be performed to verify their origins. The peaks
at an eBE of ~1.46 and ~1.83 eV are most likely from two-photon detachment of O– and OH–,
respectively. The spectral peak at an eBE of ~2.25 eV could be due to O3⁻ (mass 48)
contaminant or from the branched-[O–O(H)–O]⁻ isomer, where the H is bonded to the central
oxygen. This branched structure is considered as a possibility because the branched anion is
calculated to be stable, which will be discussed later. The photoelectron spectrum of pure O3⁻(mass 48) taken with λ = 532 nm does have intensity near 2.25 eV and two-photon detachment
signal of O⁻ at an eBE of 1.46 eV. For the 532-nm spectrum of mass-to-charge ratio 49, the~1.46 eV peak does change with laser power; however, it is not clear from the initial
measurements how the ~1.83 and ~2.25 eV peaks depend on the laser power. The peak at aneBE of ~ 1.46 eV could not be positively identified as O⁻ photodetachment because of theresolution at eBE = 1.46 eV when using 532-nm radiation.

135

Figure 7.3 Photoelectron spectra for an anion of mass-to-charge ratio 49. Two spectra are takenwith different photon wavelengths, where λ = 532 nm is shown in red and λ = 355 nm is shownin blue. The large peak at an eBE of ~1.95 eV is from OH–(O2). The other spectral peaks in the532-nm spectrum are not definitively assigned at this time.

The spectral peaks that disappear when the spectrum is taken with λ = 355 nm are
puzzling. If the ~1.83 eV peak is present in the λ = 355 nm spectrum, then it is likely obscured
due to the decrease in the experimental resolution at eBE = 1.83 eV. However, this spectral peakis assigned to the OH–(O2) complex where the complex photodissociates to OH– and O2, and asecond photon photodetaches the electron from OH–. The likely reason for the disappearance ofthe ~1.46 and ~2.25 eV peaks when the photodetachment energy changes is that they are also a
result of a multiphoton process. However, it is not obvious what parent anion(s) contributes tothese two peaks, and two possibilities are O3⁻ and/or branched-[O–O(H)–O]⁻. The O3⁻
contaminant seems unlikely since the ratio of intensities between the mass-to charge ratio 48 and
49 changes in the mass spectrum as the anion source is varied, but the spectral peaks in the 532-

136
nm spectrum do not change intensity as the anion source is changed. Therefore, the multiphoton
species are more likely from the branched-[O–O(H)–O]⁻ isomer than from O3⁻.
According to calculations (CCSD(T) at MP2 geometries) by Anne McCoy, the branched[O–O(H)–O]⁻ isomer lies 0.83 eV higher in energy than the cis-HO3⁻ isomer.146 The weakest
bond in this structure is the O–O bond (D0[O–O(H)O]⁻ = 0.99 eV), which could photodissociate
to O⁻ and HO2. Subsequent photodetachment from O⁻ would give a peak at an eBE of 1.46 eV.
Also, the H–O bond could break (D0[OO–(H)O]⁻ = 1.67 eV). Breaking the H–O bond gives O3⁻
and H atom, leading to the spectral peak at an eBE of ~2.25 eV. However, the analysis becomes
more complicated because McCoy predicts the branched-[O–O(H)–O]⁻ isomer to have a vertical
detachment energy of ~3.24 eV and an electron affinity of 2.86 eV, which we did not observe.146
Therefore, more data are required to determine if the branched-[O–O(H)–O]⁻ isomer is present
and contributing to the multiphoton peaks in the 532-nm spectrum. The absence of direct
photodetachment of the branched-[O–O(H)–O]⁻ isomer in the 355-nm spectrum suggests that
this isomer might not be the parent anion contributing to the smaller peaks in Fig.7.3.
7.2.3 Variations to the Ion Source
As mentioned earlier, the anion source is greatly varied (both the ionization techniqueand mixture of gases) in an attempt to change the 532-nm spectrum, and the 532-nm spectrum in
Fig.7.3 is invariant to changes in the anion conditions. In the initial approach, two techniques areused to ionize the gas pulse. The first is with a continuous beam of electrons generated from anelectron gun. This is the ionization technique described in Chapter II and used in the otherexperimental chapters. A second technique is using a pulsed, electrical discharge source. The
discharge occurs when gas flows between a pulsed, high voltage electrode and a grounded

137
electrode. A high voltage pulser supplies the pulsed voltage (~ -1000 V) to one electrode. To
stabilize the discharge pulse, resistors (10 – 20 kΩ) are placed between the high voltage pulser
and the charged electrode.151 We have also found that a small, continuous current of electrons(~50 μA) generated by the electron gun helps to stabilize the discharge and increase the ion
production when using the pulsed discharge as the main ionization source.
There are various setups for creating a pulsed discharge source, which involve one
electrode being grounded and the other electrode being pulsed at a negative or positive voltage.
For these experiments, the following three setups have been tried. The first pulsed discharge
setup consists of two pins at 180° with 1 to 2 mm between the pins. One pin is held at groundand the other pin is pulsed to high voltage. These pins are made of stainless steel and held inplace by a Teflon ring that is attached to the General Valve faceplate. This technique produces a
steady pulse of ions; however, the ion intensity is low. The second setup involves having a long
(2 cm), narrow channel (~1 or 2 mm inner diameter) attached to the faceplate with a cone on theother end. Inside the channel two pins produce the pulsed discharge; however, this second
method is very unstable because the narrow channel becomes dirty and charges up. A third setup
is to have rings with a ~1 mm inner diameter stacked onto the General Valve faceplate. The
stainless steel plates are insulated from each other with Teflon rings and again one plate isgrounded while the other is pulsed to high voltage. This third setup is usually used for the pulsed
discharge source because it produces the most intense and stable ions.
Both the continuous beam of electrons and pulsed discharge techniques are used to ionize
different mixtures of gases. All the mixtures of gases are expanded through the General Valve atvarious backing pressures (5 – 60 psig) and stem from previous experiments on HOOO or138
HOOOH, where HO3 and a slow electron could combine in a three-body collision or OH– could
combine with O2 in a three-body collision.152-155 At first, we flowed pure Ar or ~0.1 – 98% O2
with Ar over H2O2(l). The vapor pressure of H2O2 is high enough to be mixed with Ar.
However, we must be careful about surfaces. H2O2 is very corrosive to Buna o-rings. Therefore,
the Buna o-rings are replaced with Kalrez o-rings when H2O2 is being used; otherwise, carbon
clusters will form in the anion source. We also tried flowing a mixture of ~0.1 – 98% O2 in
Ar/He over H2O (+20°C – -10°C), where the ratio of the Ar and He are varied, and this strategy
was also not successful. In addition, mixtures of O2/H2/Ar were used in an attempt to produce
cis-HO3⁻ but this ion was not generated. Lastly we used combinations of CH4/N2O/Ar;
unfortunately, the OH–(CH4)2 cluster also resides at mass-to-charge ratio 49, which produces astrong background signal. Many combinations of different gases were used in varying
concentrations in an attempt to produce the cis-HO3⁻ isomer; however, all of the variations to theion source resulted in the same 532-nm spectrum as shown in Fig. 7.3.
7.3 Improvements/Changes to Anion Source
From these initial experiments, we learned that our current approaches do not generate
the cis-HO3⁻ isomer. According to Fig. 7.2, the dissociation limit for the cis-HO3⁻ isomer
corresponds to OH– and O2 (a 1). If the cis-HO3⁻ anions are to be made by collisions between
OH– and O2, then the O2 molecule must be in the metastable a 1 state. This cis-HO3⁻ complex
also needs to be stabilized before it dissociates because the density of the expansion is too low tostabilize the cis-HO3⁻ complex. Therefore, the OH– should be solvated by Ar, such that the Ar
can be evaporated following collisions with O2 (a 1) to stabilize the newly formed complex:
OH–(Ar)n + O2 (a 1) → cis-HO3⁻ + nAr.

Eqn. 7.2

139
In order to generate the Ar tagged OH– and the excited state of O2, some modifications
must be made to the anion source. The formation of OH–(Ar)n depends critically on the gas
expansion characteristics, which can be changed by increasing/decreasing the General Valvetension. Also, by modifying the anion source to mix gases in real time, the composition of thegas expansion can be adjusted “on the fly”, which eliminates the need to make the gas mixturesin advance and allows for incompatible gases to interact in the vacuum chamber. Both of thesemodifications to the anion source will be addressed first. The second improvement to the anion
source is then discussed, which introduces a chemical-based method for making O2 (a 1) andinjecting the excited state O2 after the formation of the OH–(Ar)n clusters.
7.3.1 Making OH–(Ar)n
To make sufficient Ar clusters, it is helpful to have an externally rotatable General Valveand the ability to mix the gases near the origin (throat) of the gas expansion. The tightness of thevalve is directly correlated to the spring tension and, therefore, the motion of the poppet
retracting from the opening of the faceplate. By changing the valve tension, the characteristicsof the gas expansion can be changed. For all previous experiments, the valve tightness was
adjusted prior to evacuating the vacuum chamber and could not be adjusted without venting thevacuum chamber. Therefore, a valve that can be rotated external to the vacuum chamber while
monitoring the ion intensity is a very important modification. The adjustable valve is
implemented by securing the General Valve face plate to the vacuum chamber and rotating the
body of the solenoid external to the vacuum chamber. A drawing of the rotatable General Valve
holder is shown in Appendix D, Fig. D.1.

140
In addition to rotating the valve, it is helpful to mix the gases internally. This is donewith an entrainment block, which is shown in Fig. D.2 within Appendix D. The entrainment
block is based upon designs from Mark Johnson’s and Mathias Weber’s groups.156-158 This
block has attachments for three General Valve faceplates with the central valve producing themain expansion. The valve design channels the gas from the two side valves into the throat of
the main expansion. For our setup, only the main valve is rotated, and all three valves can be
independently pulsed. Controlling the individual timings allows the side valves to be pulsed
prior to the main valve, which mixes the gases from the side valves with the main-gas expansion.
The entrainment block is currently setup to be used only with a beam of electrons from anelectron gun; therefore, a magnet is attached to the outside of the block to help guide the electron
beam. When the pulsed discharge source is being used as the ionization technique, the rotatable
General Valve holder (Fig. D. 1) is used.
Again, various combinations of gases are used in an attempt to make the largest OH–(Ar)nclusters. This includes mixing the gases external to the vacuum chamber and using the rotatablevalve holder or the central valve on the entrainment block. There is also the option to have realtime mixing with the entrainment block. To make intense OH–(Ar)n cluster beams, we tried
many of the combinations mentioned earlier and new combinations, such as H2O2/Ar, H2O/Ar,
CH4/N2O/Ar, C2H6/N2O/Ar, neo-C5H12/N2O/Ar, and NH3/N2O/Ar, where the external adjustmentof the valve is rotated to optimize clustering in both types of holders and with both ionization
techniques. The most successful way to make the OH–(Ar)n clusters to date has been with theCH4/N2O/Ar mixture and a beam of electrons. However, this setup is currently only making up
to n ≈ 4 for the OH–(Ar)n clusters, which is not enough to carry out the planned experiments(Eqn. 7.2), as is shown later. The mechanism for making OH– is multistep:141
N2O + e⁻ → O⁻ + N2,

Eqn. 7.3

O⁻ + CH4 → OH– + CH3,

Eqn. 7.4

and the OH– may be forming downstream from the throat of the nozzle where the density of thegas is too low for the Ar to effectively cluster with the OH–. Therefore, we also tried forming
OH– from directly breaking a bond, such as in methanol, diols, formic acid, etc. In theseexamples, when OH– was formed, it did not successfully cluster with Ar. Currently, our best
option for forming OH–(Ar)n clusters is using a mixture of CH4/N2O/Ar ionized by a beam ofelectrons.
7.3.2 Making O2 (a 1)
The OH–(Ar)n clusters need to collide with O2 (a 1), Eqn. 7.2, in order to form cis-HO3⁻.
It is clear from our previous attempts that large quantities of O2 (a 1) are not being made in theionization region but need to be intentionally generated. There are two obvious ways to makeexcited state O2: a microwave discharge source and a chemical-based method.159-163 The
microwave discharge produces many other products, such as O and O3. Therefore, we turn to thechemical based method and setup designed by Viggiano and coworkers.159,160
The O2 (a 1) generator is a chemical-based method that produces both ground andexcited state O2:159,160,162,163
H2O2 + Cl2 + 2KOH → O2 (X̃ 3 and a 1) + 2KCl + 2H2O .

Eqn. 7.5

A schematic of the setup for the production of excited state O2 is shown on the left side of Fig.
7.4. Chlorine gas bubbles through a chilled, basic solution containing hydrogen peroxide, where

142
the salt remains behind and the water becomes trapped in a sequential water trap. The flow of
the chlorine gas and temperature of the H2O2/KOH solution and water trap are varied tomaximize O2 (a 1) generation. The 1270-nm emission from the O2 (a 1) → O2 (X̃ 3)transition164 is monitored in an emission cell that is located between the water trap and thevacuum chamber, where the conversion efficiency is about 15%. Isolated O2 (a 1) has a~72 min radiative lifetime;165-168 however, the excited state of O2 can be quenched by wall
collisions, where collisions on stainless steel surfaces result in more efficient quenching than
Teflon and glass.169 Therefore, the exposure of the O2 (a 1) molecule to stainless steel, such as
the General Valve, is reduced, and Teflon and glass are used whenever possible.

143

Figure 7.4 Schematic setup for cis-HO3⁻ generation. The chemical-based method for producing
O2 (a 1) is shown on the left. Inside the vacuum chamber shows the setup for the entrainment
block with three General Valves operating to produce OH–(Ar)n clusters. The O2 (a 1) is
introduced by the capillary tube directed into the throat of the expansion.

As can be seen in Fig. 7.4, the O2 (a 1) is combined with the gas from the entrainment
block in an attempt to produce cis-HO3⁻ via Eqn. 7.2. The OH–(Ar)n clusters are optimized using
the entrainment block assembly, where the main expansion is Ar and the side valves contain theCH4 and N2O. The glass capillary tube that carries the O2 into the chamber is directed towards
the throat of the gas expansion. The O2 source is continuous and, therefore, must be leakedslowly into the chamber so that the pumps for the vacuum chamber do not become flooded. To
date, the cis-HO3⁻ has not been successfully made. However this setup does make OH–(O2)when the O2 is introduced into the source chamber. There may be a few reasons for not making

144
the desired ion. First, the intensity of the OH–(Ar)n clusters might not be enough. Second, wemight not be making enough O2 (a 1). Third, the cis-HO3⁻ is calculated to be slightly stable, but
perhaps the anion is not stable and, therefore, cannot be made. Before we accept the third
possibility, additional efforts will be made to find ways for making larger OH–(Ar)n clusters.
7.4 Future Projects
Even if the cis-HO3⁻ project is not successful, these improvements and modifications thathave been introduced to the experimental setup can be adapted to other chemical investigations.
If OH–(Ar)n clusters can be made larger, there are other atmospherically relevant species that wewould be able to study with this setup, such as HOCO, HONO, HOCO2, or HOSO2. Also, theability for making large Ar clusters, which we have successfully demonstrated with O⁻ and(H2O)⁻6, opens additional possibilities. Previous studies by our group and the Johnson group
have found that O–(CH4) is not stable and forms a trapped OH–(CH3) complex.170 However, if
we start with O⁻(Ar)n and displace some of the Ar with a gas pulse of CH4 that is farther
downstream from the gas expansion, then we could form O⁻(Ar)m(CH4), where n > m. By
vibrationally exciting the C–H stretch in the O⁻(Ar)m(CH4) cluster, the energized cluster could
undergo an H-abstraction reaction by O⁻. This reaction could be followed in real time by timeresolved photoelectron spectroscopy.
A similar study involves (H2O)6⁻(Ar)n clusters combined with nitromethane, NM.158,171173

The (H2O)6⁻(Ar)n clusters combine with a gas pulse of NM downstream from the expansion.

The NM displaces Ar as it gently attaches to the (H2O)6⁻ cluster. NM has a higher electron
affinity than (H2O)6, and energetically the electron favors the NM to produce NM– solvated by

145
H2O. If the displacement of the Ar is gentle enough, the electron stays bound to the H2O cluster
to form (H2O)6⁻(NM) that we can interrogate in a time-resolved experiment:(H2O)6⁻(NM) + hνpump → NM–(H2O)3 + hνprobe + 3H2O →NM(H2O)3 + e⁻ + 3H2O

Eqn. 7.3

The pump-probe experiment involves exciting the C–H stretch within the NM with an IR pumppulse, which perturbs the (H2O)6⁻(NM) cluster to initiate the charge transfer to the NM.158 The
probe pulse monitors the time for charge transfer by photodetaching the electron as it transfers toNM–(H2O)3. These are only a few examples of new experiments that can be performed in ourlab by combining Ar tagging and a gas pulse downstream from the gas expansion.

146

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Appendix A: Making the Infinity Spatial Filter

Making the spatial filter:
Figure A.1 shows the drawing for making the pyrex tube and aperture. The aperture can beordered from Woodburn Diamond Die, Inc. (phone: 260-632-4217), Fig. A2. The purchase orderfor the aperture can be found on common and in the VMI lab’s filing cabinet. The lenses oneach end of the spatial filter are described in the drawing made by Coherent, Inc. The last batchof lenses was purchased at Rainbow Research Optics, Inc. (phone: 303-371-3000). The lenspurchase order can be found on common and in the VMI lab’s filing cabinet. Once you have thebody of the spatial filter (pyrex tube with aperture attached in the middle) and the lenses you canbegin making the spatial filter.

163

Figure A.1 The drawing for the pyrex tube and aperture.

164

Figure A.2 The drawing for the aperture only.

Below is the procedure for placing the lenses on the pyrex tube with the aperture already inplace. Figure A.3 shows the setup in a clean room. The breadboard is secured to the table. The
three pictures, (a) – (c), are different views of the setup and will be helpful to refer to throughout
the procedure.

165

Figure A.3 (a) – (c) show three different views of the setup for attaching the lenses to the spatial
filter body. (c) shows how the homemade optic holder is mounted to the translation stage.

•Must be done in a clean room or a room where dust is minimized•

Clean the spatial filter with acetone and methanol then bake (do not bake over 150°C
because the Torr Seal holding the aperture will undergo a chemical reaction)•

Need the HeNe parallel to the table. Do this by setting the height of the HeNe with twoirises (iris #1 and #2). Have a target as far away from setup as possible•

Place the spatial filter on a translation stage and ensure that it is parallel to the table. In
the picture, we have mounted the spatial filter in a V-block and then mounted the V-block166
to the translation stage (making sure it was parallel to the table). Ensure that the 5° bend
is closest to iris #2 and the 1° bend is closest to iris #1•

Center the spatial filter aperture on the HeNe. The light should be near the center on boththe entrance and exit of the tube. (There is no guarantee that the pinhole is centered, so
the light might not be exactly centered on the tube but still be centered on the aperture)•

Mount the lens on the 5° end first.
•

The lens needs to be mounted on a 3D translation stage that allows for
manipulation of the lens. We have made an optic holder for the correct
dimensions of the lens and epoxied the optic mount to the translation stage. (Seethe close-up picture in Fig. A.3c)•

Set the lens at the correct angle by matching it to the angle of the tube.

•

Then translate the lens to bring the HeNe spot back onto the target. Check that theangle still looks good.

•

Before torr sealing the lens, practice moving the lens up to the end of the tube
and then retracting. Know exactly the micrometer position that the translation
stage needs to be in order to make a connection. Practice, practice, practice! When
you are confident, retract the stage one more time, apply torr seal to the tube, andbring the lens back to the predetermined micrometer position! Allow to dry for 24hours. Do not move the stage until the other lens is mounted and dried!!

•

Mount the lens on the 1° end second

167•

do the same procedure as above. Allow to dry for 24 hours•

remove lenses from optic mounts•

apply a bead of torr-seal around lens and pyrex on both sides to make a solid seal•

allow to dry for 24 hours•

Leak test•

Pull vacuum on spatial filter (needs to be less than 1x10-6 Torr) and flame seal it!

•

Put in laser and go through alignment procedure in Infinity manual.

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Appendix B: Nanosecond Laser System Timing Scheme for SRS boxes

Table B.1 Nanosecond laser system timing scheme for SRS boxes. Mass gate not used.

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Appendix C: Femtosecond Laser System Timing Scheme for SRS boxes

Table C.1 Femtosecond laser system timing scheme for SRS boxes. Mass gate not used.

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Appendix D: General Valve Holders

Figure D.1 Drawing of the adjustable-valve holder for General Valve. The two holes on thefront are tapped and secure the bottom of the General Valve faceplate. The groove down thecenter is cut out so that the body of the solenoid can rotate freely. This holder is attached to ametal block inside the chamber through four 8-32 screws.

Figure D.2 Drawing of the entrainment-block assembly. The front and back plates are held
together with three General Valves by using a nut and bolt for each of the clearance holes. The
top drawing is the front of the entrainment block. Only a hole is cut out for the central valve,
which produces the main expansion. The bottom drawing is the back of the entrainment block.
The three faceplates attach to the reverse side that is shown. The side of the entrainment blockthat is shown has a groove cutout for the gases introduced by the two end valves; therefore, thegases produced from the two side valves are entrained into the main expansion.