A high resolution pulsed field ionization photoelectron study of O2 using third generation undulator synchrotron radiation

Abstract

We have improved a newly developed experimental scheme for high resolution pulsed field ionization photoelectron (PFI-PE) studies [Hsu et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. (in press)] using the high resolution monochromatized multibunch undulator synchrotron source of the Chemical Dynamics Beamline at the Advanced Light Source. This improved scheme makes possible PFI-PE measurements with essentially no contamination by background electrons arising from direct photoionization and prompt autoionization processes. We present here a preliminary analysis of the rotationally resolved PFI-PE spectrum for O2 obtained at a resolution of 0.5 meV (full-width-at-half-maximum) in the photon energy range of 18.1–19.4 eV, yielding accurate ionization energies for the transitions O2+(b 4Σg−, v+=0–9, N+=1)←O2(X 3Σg−, v=0, N=1).