Determining the stereo configuration of carbonyl sulfide dimers using Coulomb-explosion imaging

Abstract

A four-body coincident measurement of carbonyl sulfide dimers is conducted using a femtosecond laser-induced Coulomb explosion. Sequential and concerted processes that occur during the Coulomb explosion are distinguished. Four isomers of carbonyl sulfide dimer are resolved, and their structures are retrieved from the measured coincident momenta of the fragment ions generated in the concerted process, with the help of a classical trajectory simulation. As a result of our study, we can resolve the isomers of a weakly bound molecular cluster and determine their stereo configuration by using the Coulomb explosion. There is also the potential in femtosecond time-resolved imaging for structural evolution of molecular complexes in dissociation.