Reactive intermediates in dicationic and higher charge states

Short-lived atomic and molecular reactive intermediates in different states of charge and excitation are key species in environments like the Earth’s and other planetary atmospheres, the interstellar medium, and in plasmas. Up to now mainly neutral and singly ionised forms of any of them have been characterized in detail.

The core of this proposal is an entirely new research field which just started, covering the electronic structure, spectra and dynamics of doubly ionised reactive intermediates.

I and my team will advance this field by acquiring clean electronic spectra and identifying state-specific dissociation pathways of multiply ionised reactive species.

The research aims to answer questions such as why the abundance of cyano-polyynes in the interstellar medium cuts off at sizes well below the full range known to be stable in the laboratory.

To study a wide range of species we must expand our arsenal of production and handling techniques to rapidly transport samples generated by pyrolysis or discharge into the ionisation zone, avoiding degradation by reactions such as polymerisation.

The key experimental technique is multi-electron-ion coincidence spectroscopy which has been developed uniquely in my group and which we will now improve further.

The incorporation of a new magnet assembly giving substantially higher field strengths in the light-matter interaction region combined with our 5.6 m flight tube will set a new resolution standard for this type of experiment.