Abstract
We report a time-resolved (, ) experiment on the deuterated acetone molecule in the Rydberg state with a lifetime of 13.5 ps. The acetone state was prepared by a 195 nm pump laser and probed with electron momentum spectroscopy using a 1.2 keV incident electron beam of 1 ps temporal width. In spite of the low data statistics as well as of the limited time resolution () due to velocity mismatch, the experimental results clearly demonstrate that electron momentum spectroscopy measurements of short-lived transient species are feasible, opening the door to time-resolved orbital imaging in momentum space.
- Received 3 December 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.103005
© 2015 American Physical Society
Focus
Catching a Molecule in an Excited State
Published 13 March 2015
A twist on an established imaging method has detected a molecule’s short-lived, excited state, raising the possibility of movies of chemical reactions.
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