Reactive scattering of a neon seeded oxygen atom beam

A high pressure microwave discharge source operating with a dilute mixture of O₂ in Ne has been used to produce a supersonic nozzle beam of O atoms seeded in Ne. This low energy supersonic O atom beam has been used to study the reactive scattering of O atoms with Cl₂ and CS₂ molecules at an initial translational energy E = 13 kJ mol^?1. The results are compared with rective scattering from the same reactions using a high energy O atom beam formed by seeding O atoms in He. The O + Cl₂ reaction proceeds via a short-lived collision complex where the lifetime of the collision complex depends upon the initial translational energy. However the O + CS₂ reaction follows a stripping mechanism which is unaffected by initial translational energy.     

Crossed Beam Study on the F+D2→DF+D Reaction at Hyperthermal Collision Energy of 23.84 kJ/mol

We presented an experimental apparatus combining the H-atom Rydberg tagging time-of-flight technique and the laser detonation source for studying crossed beam reactions athyperthermal collision energies. The preliminary study of the F+D₂→DF+D reaction at hyperthermal collision energy of 23.84 kJ/mol was performed. Two beam sources were used in this study: one is the hyperthermal F beam source produced by a laser detonation process, and the other is D₂ beam source generated by liquid-N₂ cooled pulsed valve. Vibrational state-resolved di erential cross sections (DCSs) of product for the title reaction were determined. From the product vibrational state-resolved DCS, it can be concluded that products DF(v'=0, 1, 2, 3) are predominantly distributed in the sideway and backward scattering directions at this collision energy. However, the highest vibrational excited product DF(v'=4), is clearly peaked in the forward direction. The probable dynamical origins for these forward scattering products were analyzed and discussed.     

Interfacial energy exchange and reaction dynamics in collisions of gases on model organic surfaces

Molecular beam scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations have been combined to develop an atomic-level understanding of energy transfer, accommodation, and reactions during collisions between gases and model organic surfaces. The work highlighted in this progress report has been motivated by the scientific importance of understanding fundamental interfacial chemical reactions and the relevance of reactions on organic surfaces to many areas of environmental chemistry. The experimental investigations have been accomplished by molecular beam scattering from ω-functionalized self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold. Molecular beams provide a source of reactant molecules with precisely characterized collision energy and flux; SAMs afford control over the order, structure, and chemical nature of the surface. The details of molecular motion that affect energy exchange and scattering have been elucidated through classical-trajectory simulations of the experimental data using potential energy surfaces derived from ab initio calculations. Our investigations began by employing rare-gas scattering to explore how alkanethiol chain length and packing density, terminal group relative mass, orientation, and chemical functionality influence energy transfer and accommodation at organic surfaces. Subsequent studies of small molecule scattering dynamics provided insight into the influence of internal energy, molecular orientation, and gas–surface attractive forces in interfacial energy exchange. Building on the understanding of scattering dynamics in non-reactive systems, our work has recently explored the reaction probabilities and mechanisms for O₃ and atomic fluorine in collisions with a variety of functionalized SAM surfaces. Together, this body of work has helped construct a more comprehensive understanding of reaction dynamics at organic surfaces.     

Molecular beam study of iodine atom abstraction by oxygen atoms

Reactive scattering of O atoms with CF₃I molecules has been studied at an initial translational energy E = 32.1 kJ mol^?1 using a He seeded O atom beam and at E = 13.9 kJ mol^?1 using a Ne seeded O atom beam. Reactive scattering of IO product favours the backward hemisphere at low energy but becomes almost isotropic at high energy. The product translational energy distribution at low energy indicates substantial energy transfer with internal modes of the collision complex but at high energy the excess energy is disposed into product translation.     

Development of compact coherent EUV source based on laser Compton scattering

High-power extreme ultra-violet (EUV) sources are required for next generation semiconductor lithography. We start to develop a compact EUV source in the spectral range 13–14 nm, which is based on a laser Compton scattering between a 7 MeV micro-bucnhed electron beam and a high-intensity CO₂ laser pulse. The electron beam extracted from a DC photocathode gun is micro-bunched using a laser modulation techinque with the Compton wavelength at a harmonic of the seeding laser before the main laser Compton scattering for EUV generation. A considerating scheme for the compact EUV source based on the laser Compton scattering with micro-bunched electron beam and the analytical study of micro-bunch generation are described in this paper.     

Structural effects of fluorine substitution in proteins

The consequences of substitution of fluorine for the para hydrogen of a phenylalanine residue in ribonuclease-S were investigated by conformational energy calculations using the AMBER force field. Both the fluorine-containing protein and the corresponding nonfluorinated material were subjected to conformational adjustment through energy minimization and the minimum energy structures so defined were compared. Fluorine substitution leads to small alterations in many atomic positions in the protein, with adjustments at at sites more than 0.5 nm from the fluorine appearing to be somewhat larger than those within the immediate vicinity of the fluorine. Several atoms proximate to the fluorine atom were observed to move toward the fluorine while others in the same vicinity move away. The greater bulk of the fluorine atom and the strongly different electronic properties of fluorine compared to hydrogen thus appear to be insufficient to cause a consistent, unidirectional change in nearest-neighbor interactions upon introduction of a fluorine atom into a protein structure. Virtually all changes in atomic positions that are predicted by these calculations would be barely detectable by a crystallographic study with a resolution of 0.2 nm.     

Exact quantum calculations of the kinetic isotope effect: cross sections and rate constants for the F+HD reaction and role of tunneling

In this paper we present integral cross sections (in the 5-220 meV collision energy range) and rate constants (in the 100-300 K range of temperature) for the F+HD reaction leading to HF+D and DF+H. The exact quantum reactive scattering calculations were carried out using the hyperquantization algorithm on an improved potential energy surface which incorporates the effects of open shell and fine structure of the fluorine atom in the entrance channel. The results reproduce satisfactorily molecular beam scattering experiments as well as chemical kinetics data for both the HF and DF channels. In particular, the agreement of the rate coefficients and the vibrational branching ratios with experimental measurements is improved with respect to previous studies. At thermal and subthermal energies, the rates are greatly influenced by tunneling through the reaction barrier. Therefore exchange of deuterium is shown to be penalized with respect to exchange of hydrogen, and the isotopic branching exhibits a strong dependence on translational energy. Also, it is found that rotational excitation of the reactant HD molecule enhances the production of HF and decreases the reactivity at the D end, obtaining insight on the reaction stereodynamics.     

Crossed Beams Study on the Dynamics of F Atom Reaction with 1,2-Butadiene

We have investigated the dynamics of the F+C₄H₆ reaction using the universal crossed molecular beam method. The C₄H₅F+H reaction channel was observed in this experiment. Angular resolved time-of-flight spectra have been measured for the C₄H₅F product. Product angular distributions as well as kinetic energy distributions were determined for this product channel. Experimental results show that the C₄H₅F product is largely backward scattered with considerable forward scattering signal, relative to the F atom beam direction. This suggests that the reaction channel mainly proceeds via a long-lived complex formation mechanism, with possible contribution from a direct SN₂ type mechanism.     

Crossed Molecular Beam Study of the F+D2(v=1, j=0) Reaction

The reaction dynamics of the fluorine atom with vibrationally excited D₂(v=1, v=0) was investigated using the crossed beam method. The scheme of stimulated Raman pumping was employed for preparation of vibrationally excited D₂ molecules. Contribution from the reaction of spin-orbit excited F^?(²P_1/2) with vibrationally excited D₂ was not found. Reaction of spin-orbit ground F(²P_3/2) with vibrationally excited D2 was measured and DF products populated in v‘=2, 3, 4, 5 were observed. Compared with the vibrationally ground reaction, DF products from the vibrationally excited reaction of F(²P_3/2)+D₂(v=1, j=0) are rotationally “hotter”. Differential cross sections at four collision energies, ranging from 0.32 kcal/mol to 2.62 kcal/mol, were obtained. Backward scattering dominates for DF products in all vibrational levels at the lowest collision energy of 0.32 kcal/mol. As the collision energy increases, angular distribution of DF products gradually shifts from backward to sideway. The collision-energy dependence of differential cross section of DF(v’=5) at forward direction was also measured. Forward-scattered signal of DF(v'=5) appears at thecollision energy of 1.0 kcal/mol, and becomes dominated at 2.62 kcal/mol.     

Interaction of He Atoms with XeF2 Observed in Crossed Molecular Beams

The interactional shape of XeF₂ with respect to energy and distance was observed by He atom scattering in molecular beam experiments. The heterogeneous second virial coefficient and the binary coefficient of diffusion were calculated from the resulting interaction potential.     

Production of cold bromine atoms at zero mean velocity by photodissociation

The production of a translationally cold (T < 1 K) sample of bromine atoms with estimated densities of up to 10(8) cm(-3) using photodissociation is presented. A molecular beam of Br(2) seeded in Kr is photodissociated into Br + Br* fragments, and the velocity distribution of the atomic fragments is determined using (2 + 1) REMPI and velocity map ion imaging. By recording images with varying delay times between the dissociation and probe lasers, we investigate the length of time after dissociation for which atoms remain in the laser focus, and determine the velocity spread of those atoms. By careful selection of the photolysis energy, it is found that a fraction of the atoms can be detected for delay times in excess of 100 μs. These are atoms for which the fragment recoil velocity vector is directly opposed and equal in magnitude to the parent beam velocity leading to a resultant lab frame velocity of approximately zero. The FWHM velocity spreads of detected atoms along the beam axis after 100 μs are less than 5 ms(-1), corresponding to temperatures in the milliKelvin range, opening the possibility that this technique could be utilized as a slow Br atom source.     

Effects of finite carbon nanotube length on sidewall addition of fluorine atom and methylene

Density functional computations (PBE and B3LYP) in conjunction with 3-21G and 6-31G basis sets are used to determine the energy of fluorine atom and CH(2) addition to the sidewall of (5,5) C(30+10)(n)()H(20) (n = 0, 1, 2.18) carbon nanotube slabs. A pronounced oscillation of the addition energy is found for fluorine atom addition, while oscillations are significantly damped for carbene addition due to the insertion into CC bonds. [structure: see text]     

Effects of physics change in Monte Carlo code on electron pencil beam dose distributions

Pencil beam algorithms used in computerized electron beam dose planning are usually described using the small angle multiple scattering theory. Alternatively, the pencil beams can be generated by Monte Carlo simulation of electron transport. In a previous work, the 4th version of the Electron Gamma Shower (EGS) Monte Carlo code was used to obtain dose distributions from monoenergetic electron pencil beam, with incident energy between 1 MeV and 50 MeV, interacting at the surface of a large cylindrical homogeneous water phantom. In 2000, a new version of this Monte Carlo code has been made available by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), which includes various improvements in its electron-transport algorithms. In the present work, we were interested to see if the new physics in this version produces pencil beam dose distributions very different from those calculated with oldest one. The purpose of this study is to quantify as well as to understand these differences. We have compared a series of pencil beam dose distributions scored in cylindrical geometry, for electron energies between 1 MeV and 50 MeV calculated with two versions of the Electron Gamma Shower Monte Carlo Code. Data calculated and compared include isodose distributions, radial dose distributions and fractions of energy deposition. Our results for radial dose distributions show agreement within 10% between doses calculated by the two codes for voxels closer to the pencil beam central axis, while the differences are up to 30% for longer distances. For fractions of energy deposition, the results of the EGS4 are in good agreement (within 2%) with those calculated by EGSnrc at shallow depths for all energies, whereas a slightly worse agreement (15%) is observed at deeper distances. These differences may be mainly attributed to the different multiple scattering for electron transport adopted in these two codes and the inclusion of spin effect, which produces an increase of the effective range of electrons.     

Cluster models of interaction of a fluorine atom with the (111) face of silicon

The AMI method has been used in calculating activation energies of desorption of surface complexes from the (111) face of silicon. For the desorption of a surface Si atom, the desorption of an FSi radical containing this Si atom when a fluorine atom implanted in the surface layer is present, and the desorption of the FSi radical when such a fluorine atom is not present, the values found for the activation energy are 8.0, 0.9, and 6.4 eV, respectively.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 144–147, March–April, 1992.     

Multiple collisions in molecular beam scattering experiments

Due to the forward peaked differential cross section for elastic atom—atom scattering the effect of multiple collisions has to be considered in the analysis of crossed beam measurements of the total cross section and especially of the small angle differential cross section at large values of the beam attenuation. At angles θ ≈ θ₀, with θ₀ the quantum mechanical scaling angle of the elastic differential cross section, the correction for the latter case amounts to 20% at beam attenuations I/I₀ = exp(?1). Firstly, a careful analysis of the probabilities for single and multiple scattering is given, resulting in an expression for the measured beam signals which is correct for all values of the beam attenuation. The probability for multiple scattering is then calculated for an inverse power potential V(r) = ?C_sr^?s, with s = 4 through s = 7, which include both the case of ion—atom scattering (s = 4) and atom—atom scattering (s = 6). The results are given as effective differential cross sections σ_n(θ) for n-fold scattering. They are described by a single, simple analytical function with four free parameters that have been determined for n = 2, 3 and 4 by a least squares method. The σ_n(θ) are normalised to the total cross section Q.     

Electronic Structures,Bonding Configurations,and Band-Gap-Opening Properties of Graphene Binding with Low-Concentration Fluorine

To better understand the effects of low-level fluorine in graphene-based sensors, first-principles density functional theory (DFT) with van der Waals dispersion interactions has been employed to investigate the structure and impact of fluorine defects on the electrical properties of single-layer graphene films. The results show that both graphite-2 H and graphene have zero band gaps. When fluorine bonds to a carbon atom, the carbon atom is pulled slightly above the graphene plane, creating what is referred to as a C_F defect. The lowest-binding energy state is found to correspond to two C_F defects on nearest neighbor sites, with one fluorine above the carbon plane and the other below the plane. Overall this has the effect of buckling the graphene. The results further show that the addition of fluorine to graphene leads to the formation of an energy band (B_F) near the Fermi level, contributed mainly from the 2p orbitals of fluorine with a small contribution from the p orbitals of the carbon. Among the 11 binding configurations studied, our results show that only in two cases does the B_F serve as a conduction band and open a band gap of 0.37 eV and 0.24 eV respectively. The binding energy decreases with decreasing fluorine concentration due to the interaction between neighboring fluorine atoms. The obtained results are useful for sensor development and nanoelectronics.     

Electron diffraction from oriented molecules:e—CH3Cl

The additional molecular interference contributions to the differential elastic electron scattering cross sections for spatially oriented and partially state-selected CH₃Cl molecules have been measured at an incident energy of 1 keV. Using the electrostatic hexapole technique, the molecules were oriented with their axes preferentially parallel or antiparallel to the electron beam. Deviations from the diffraction pattern of unoriented molecules of up to 4% were observed as a function of momentum transfer. A change of the orientational distribution in the state ensemble gave rise to a significantly altered interference pattern with alignment contributions dominating in both cases. For comparison with the data the fractional population of the various states present in the molecular beam was calculated and the independent atom model was applied to obtain the scattering pattern using the formalism of Kohl and Shipsey.     

Effects of Electronic Structure of Adjacent Carbon on the Strength of C─F⋯H─F Organofluorine Hydrogen Bonds

We investigate the effects of the electronic structure of carbon atom on the organofluorine hydrogen bonds, C─F⋯H─F. Our results show that we can modulate the strength of organofluorine hydrogen bonds by adjusting the volume of fluorine atom in C─F via changing the electronic structure of adjacent carbon atoms. Different with the conventional hydrogen bonds, we found that instead of carbon rehybridization and hyperconjugative effects, the magnitude of fluorine atomic volume plays important roles in determining the strength of the C─F⋯H─F organofluorine hydrogen bonds. The lone pair electrons at both the proximal and the vicinal carbon dramatically reinforce the strength of C─F⋯H─F organofluorine hydrogen bond with its interaction energy in the range of about 15–25 kcal/mol, that is, the carbanion-mediated organofluorine hydrogen bond could be very strong. Due to the high electronegativity of fluorine atom, it easily attracts the excess electron from the proximal and vicinal carbon, which results in the increase of its volume and negative charge. The enhanced volume of fluorine atom gives rise to the large polarization energy, and its enhanced negative charge favors the large electrostatic interaction, both of which substantially contribute to making the organofluorine hydrogen bonds strong. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Atomic beam-induced fluorination of polyimide and its application to site-selective Cu metallization

Metallization methods of polyimide by hyperthermal atomic oxygen and atomic fluorine beams were developed. An atomic fluorine beam with a translational energy of 6.2 eV modified the wettability of polyimide surfaces to provide an advancing water contact angle of 132 degrees. It was confirmed that in-air storage for 2 months did not alter the hydrophobic property created by the atomic fluorine beam. This stable beam-induced surface fluorination technique was then applied to site-selective electroless Cu plating on polyimide. It was demonstrated that changing the exposure sequence could create both positive- and negative-type plating processes.