(1+ 1) CDAD: A new technique for studying photofragment alignment

Abstract

We report a new technique for measuring photofragment alignment in the gas phase by observing circular dichroism in photoelectron angular distributions (CDAD). This technique is well suited for determining the gas phase alignment of linear molecules. The experiment involves excitation of the photofragment with linearly polarized light followed by photoionization with left or right circularly polarized light. The difference between the photoelectron angular distributions for these two cases is the CDAD spectrum. By measuring CDAD through two different excitation branches, one can obtain the ground state photofragment alignment A⁽²⁾₀ using a simple analytical formula independent of the photoionization dynamics.

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