Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules
A rationale for creating highly aligned distributions of molecules is that it enables vector properties referenced to molecule-fixed axes (the molecular frame) to be determined. In the present work, the degree of alignment that is necessary in order for this to be achieved in practice is explored. A...
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| Format: | Article |
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Royal Society of Chemistry
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47619/ |
| _version_ | 1848797590265528320 |
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| author | Reid, Katharine L. |
| author_facet | Reid, Katharine L. |
| author_sort | Reid, Katharine L. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | A rationale for creating highly aligned distributions of molecules is that it enables vector properties referenced to molecule-fixed axes (the molecular frame) to be determined. In the present work, the degree of alignment that is necessary in order for this to be achieved in practice is explored. Alignment is commonly parametrised in experiments by a single parameter, <cos²Θ>, which is insufficient to enable predictive calculations to be performed. Here it is shown that, if the full distribution of molecular axes takes a Gaussian form, this single parameter can be used to determine the complete set of alignment moments needed to characterise the distribution. In order to demonstrate the degree of alignment that is required in order to approach the molecular frame, the set of alignment moments corresponding to a few chosen values of <cos²Θ> are used to project a model molecular frame photoelectron angular distribution into the laboratory frame. These calculations show that <cos²Θ> needs to approach 0.9 in order to avoid significant blurring to be caused by averaging. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:06:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-47619 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:06:18Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Royal Society of Chemistry |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-476192024-08-15T15:27:20Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47619/ Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules Reid, Katharine L. A rationale for creating highly aligned distributions of molecules is that it enables vector properties referenced to molecule-fixed axes (the molecular frame) to be determined. In the present work, the degree of alignment that is necessary in order for this to be achieved in practice is explored. Alignment is commonly parametrised in experiments by a single parameter, <cos²Θ>, which is insufficient to enable predictive calculations to be performed. Here it is shown that, if the full distribution of molecular axes takes a Gaussian form, this single parameter can be used to determine the complete set of alignment moments needed to characterise the distribution. In order to demonstrate the degree of alignment that is required in order to approach the molecular frame, the set of alignment moments corresponding to a few chosen values of <cos²Θ> are used to project a model molecular frame photoelectron angular distribution into the laboratory frame. These calculations show that <cos²Θ> needs to approach 0.9 in order to avoid significant blurring to be caused by averaging. Royal Society of Chemistry 2018-03-13 Article PeerReviewed Reid, Katharine L. (2018) Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules. Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 376 (2115). p. 20170158. ISSN 1471-2962 http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/376/2115/20170158 doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0158 doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0158 |
| spellingShingle | Reid, Katharine L. Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules |
| title | Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules |
| title_full | Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules |
| title_fullStr | Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules |
| title_full_unstemmed | Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules |
| title_short | Accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules |
| title_sort | accessing the molecular frame through strong-field alignment of distributions of gas phase molecules |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47619/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47619/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47619/ |