A Surface Femtosecond Two-Photon Photoemission Spectrometer for Excited Electron Dynamics and Time-Dependent Photochemical Kinetics

搭建了一套研究金属和金属氧化物表面的超快激发态电子动力学和光化学动力学的飞秒双光子光电子能谱仪. 该装置将半球形电子能量分析仪和成像技术相结合,同时测量光电子的能量和角度分布.通过Mach-Zehnder干涉仪测量时间分辨的双光子光电子能谱获得超快激发电子态的动力学信息. 这一功能在Cu(111)上得到了证实. 另外还发展了一个通过实时测量双光子光电子能谱来研究表面光化学的方法,并成功应用到CH₃CH₂OH/TiO₂(110)体系. 研究表明,只有将两种方法结合起来才能正确地研究光诱导的表面激发共振的动力学.     

Causal loop diagrams as a de-escalation technique

Escalation of commitment, the tendency of decision makers to keep on investing in losing courses of action, has been shown to be a costly decision bias that affects many areas of decision making. Even though escalation is a widely studied phenomenon, there has been comparatively little research on how to avoid this bias. The present study focuses on de-escalation of commitment and proposes that causal loop diagrams (CLDs) can help to decrease escalating commitment to a failing course of action. By means of an experiment, this study shows that using a CLD decreases escalation tendencies.     

Vibrationally promoted electron emission from low work-function metal surfaces

We observe electron emission when vibrationally excited NO molecules with vibrational state v, in the range of 9 < or = v < or =18, are scattered from a Cs-dosed Au surface. The quantum efficiency increases strongly with v, increasing up to 10(-2) electrons per NO (v) collision, a value several orders of magnitude larger than that observed in experiments with similar molecules in the ground vibrational state. The electron emission signal, as a function of v, has a threshold where the vibrational excitation energy slightly exceeds the surface work function. This threshold behavior strongly suggests that we are observing the direct conversion of NO vibrational energy into electron kinetic energy. Several potential mechanisms for the observed electron emission are explored, including (1) vibrational autodetachment, (2) an Auger-type two-electron process, and (3) vibrationally promoted dissociation. The results of this work provide direct evidence for nonadiabatic energy-transfer events associated with large amplitude vibrational motion at metal surfaces.     

Two photoionization thresholds of N3 produced by ClN3 photodissociation at 248 nm: further evidence for cyclic N3

We present results of near-threshold photoionization of N3 photofragments produced by laser photodissociation of ClN3 at 248 nm. The time of flight of recoiling N3 is used to resolve two photochemical channels producing N3, which exhibit different translational energy release. The two forms of N3 resolved in this way exhibit different photoionization thresholds, consistent with their assignment to linear (X 2pi(g)) and cyclic N3. This result agrees with the existing theoretical calculations of excited and ionic states of N3 and strengthens previous experimental results which suggested that the ClN3 photolysis produces a cyclic form of N3.     

Phase diagrams of lyotropic cholesteric fluids

Experimental investigations of lyotropic cholesterics fluids are presented which show that changes in the shape anisotropy and chirality of the micellar population determine the topology of the temperature-concentration phase diagrams. For given amounts of the substances which induce the chirality and modify the shape anisotropy of the micelles, two distinct biaxial cholesteric phases are disclosed in the phase diagrams. This is interpreted in the framework of the catastrophe theory of phase transitions.