High-resolution pulsed-field ionization photoelectron study of O{sub 2}

Abstract

There have been numerous photoionization studies of O{sub 2} over the past 10 years. Using the pulsed field ionization (PFI) photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) technique, the electronic ground state of O{sub 2}{sup +} (X{sup 2}{Pi}{sub g}{sup {minus}}) has been well studied on the rotationally resolved level by several groups. However, due to the difficulty of producing photon energies above 18 eV using the tunable lasers, the electronic excited states of O{sub 2}{sup +} have been mostly studied on the vibrationally resolved level using the threshold photoelectron spectroscopy (TPES) and the synchrotron radiation. Recently, the authors developed a new technique for performing the PFI-PE experiments using multi-bunch synchrotron radiation at the Chemical Dynamics Beamline of the Advanced Light Source (ALS). Using the high resolution VUV light from the ALS, they have obtained the PFI-PE spectra of O{sub 2} between 12 and 24 eV. In this abstract, the authors report for the first time the rotationally resolved spectra of O{sub 2}{sup +} (b{sup 4}{Sigma}{sub g}{sup {minus}}, v{sup +}=0).