Zero kinetic energy electron experiments

Time-of-flight mass spectrometers have been used as detectors in a wider variety of experiments tlian any other mass spectrometer. This is especially true of spectroscopic applications, many of which are discussed in this encyclopedia. Unlike the other instruments described in this chapter, the TOP mass spectrometer is usually used for one purpose, to acquire the mass spectrum of a compound. They caimot generally be used for the kinds of ion-molecule chemistry discussed in this chapter, or structural characterization experiments such as collision-induced dissociation. Plowever, they are easily used as detectors for spectroscopic applications such as multi-photoionization (for the spectroscopy of molecular excited states) [38], zero kinetic energy electron spectroscopy [39] (ZEKE, for the precise measurement of ionization energies) and comcidence measurements (such as photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy [40] for the measurement of ion fragmentation breakdown diagrams). 

Two types of time resolved experiments can be carried out on such a system. The less ambiguous approach is that employed in the stilbene—He study (fig. 10.5) in which a second laser, time delayed from the pump laser, is used to excited the state. Smith and Knee (1993) have used picosecond time resolved TPES spectroscopy in which zero-energy electrons are collected as a function of the probe laser wavelength. [Laser based TPES has also been called zero kinetic energy (ZEKE) electron spectroscopy or pulsed field ionization (PFI) (Muller-Dethlefs and Schlag, 1991)]. Figure... 

My question to Prof. Gerber is the following Could you please explain the different virtues of femtosecond pump-pulse experiments versus ultrashort zero electron kinetic energy (ZEKE) spectroscopy Do they yield complementary information on the molecular dynamics or are there specific domains where one of them should be preferred with respect to the other ... 

In a previous study [1], NF has been found to form with low or no kinetic energy in a dissociative capture process at zero electron energy, possibly by the process NF3 + e- NF 2F. Its resonance maximum was at 2.8 eV. The cluster ion NF3-F was identified in electron swarm experiments with a mixture of 0.04% NF3 in N2 using a drift tube mass spectrometer system [13]. 

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