Relativistic and interchannel coupling effects in photoionization angular distributions by synchrotron spectrocopy of laser cooled atoms

We investigate the angular distribution of photoionization fragments at low photon energies (12-40 eV) in an open shell atom, by synchrotron radiation recoil ion momentum spectroscopy in a laser cooled and trapped sample. For cesium atoms, for which relativistic effects play an important role and the ion recoil is relatively small, we could determine large and rapid changes of the asymmetry parameter beta from two, observed for s electrons outside resonances and far from the Cooper minimum. They can be explained by relativistic effects and interchannel coupling arising from final state configuration mixing.     

Theoretical and experimental study of valence photoelectron spectrum of D,L-alanine amino acid

In this work, the He-I (21.218 eV) photoelectron spectrum of D,L-alanine in the gas phase is revisited experimentally and theoretically. To support the experiment, the high level ab initio calculations were used to calculate and assign the photoelectron spectra of the four most stable conformers of gaseous alanine, carefully. The symmetry adapted cluster/configuration interaction (SAC-CI) method based on single and double excitation operators (SD-R) and its more accurate version, termed general-R, was used to separately calculate the energies and intensities of the ionization bands of the L- and D-alanine conformers. The intensities of ionization bands were calculated based on the monopole approximation. Also, natural bonding orbital (NBO) calculations were employed for better spectral band assignment. The relative electronic energy, Gibbs free energy, and Boltzmann population ratio of the conformers were calculated at the experimental temperature (403 K) using several theoretical methods. The theoretical photoelectron spectrum of alanine was calculated by summing over the spectra of individual D and L conformers weighted by different population ratios. Finally, the population ratio of the four most stable conformers of alanine was estimated from the experimental photoelectron spectrum using theoretical calculations for the first time.     

Electronic sputtering produced by fission fragments on condensed CO and CO2

Condensed CO and CO2 are bombarded by approximately 65 MeV 252Cf fission fragments and the desorbed ions are analyzed by time-of-flight mass spectrometry as a function of target temperature, in the ranges 25-33 K and 75-91 K, respectively. Absolute desorption yields are measured up to complete ice sublimation. The mass spectra of both ice targets reveal the emission of: (1) low mass ions, produced by direct Coulomb interaction of the highly charged projectiles and delta-electrons with CO and CO2, and (2) pronounced series of cluster ions. The basic ice cluster structures (CO)n and (CO2)n are present in the emitted cluster series such as (CO)nCO+, (CO2)nCO2+, or (CO2)nCO3-. In the case of CO ice, however, the intense production of the series Cn+, Cn-, and (CO)mCn+ shows that Cn is the main cluster structure, consequence of a higher concentration of free carbon atoms in the nuclear track plasma of CO ice than in that of CO2 ice. Ion cluster abundance is observed to decrease exponentially with cluster mass. The decay constant is k(n) congruent with 0.13, about the same for series based on (CO)n and (CO2)n, but a factor 3.3 higher for the Cn series. The Cn clusters are formed by gas-phase condensation, but the (CO)n and (CO2)n clusters are produced by fracturing of the highly excited solid around the nuclear track. A dramatic reduction of the ion desorption yield is observed near T = 29 K for CO and near T = 85 K for CO2, when fast sublimation occurs and ice thickness vanishes. Close to sublimation temperature, the decay constant of the (CO)2Cn+ series increases due to a decreasing formation probability of large Cn clusters.