Enantioselective One-Photon Excitation of Formic Acid
We use one-photon excitation to promote K-shell electrons of formic acid (which has a planar equilibrium structure) to an antibonding π^{*} orbital. The excited molecule is known to have a (chiral) pyramidal equilibrium structure. In our experiment, we determine the handedness of the excited molecule by imaging the momenta of charged fragments, which occur after its Coulomb explosion triggered by Auger-Meitner decay cascades succeeding the excitation. We find that the handedness of the excited molecule depends on its spatial orientation with respect to the propagation (or polarization) direction of the exciting photon. The effect is largely independent of the exact polarization properties of the light driving the 1s→π^{*} excitation.
Authors
- T. Jahnke
- Philipp V. Demekhin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9797-6648)
- K. Fehre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2519-5564)
- Florian Trinter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0891-9180)
- Dimitrios Tsitsonis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8748-6677)
- Joshua Williams
- M. S. Schöffler
- R. Dörner
Institutions
- University of Kassel (DE)
- Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
- University of Nevada, Reno (US)
- Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2024-08-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.133.093002
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Chemical Physics Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.69
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung