Dissociation Dynamics of Molecular Ions in High dc Electric Field

In an atom probe, molecular ions can be field evaporated from the analyzed material and, then, can dissociate under the very intense electric field close to the field emitter. In this work, field evaporation of ZnO reveals the emission of Zn2O2 2+ ions and their dissociation into ZnO+ ions. It is sh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of physical chemistry. A, Molecules, spectroscopy, kinetics, environment, & general theory Molecules, spectroscopy, kinetics, environment, & general theory, 2016-05, Vol.120 (20), p.3654-3662
Main Authors: Blum, Ivan, Rigutti, Lorenzo, Vurpillot, François, Vella, Angela, Gaillard, Aurore, Deconihout, Bernard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed Matter
Electricity
Physics
Water - chemistry
Zinc Oxide - chemistry
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Summary:In an atom probe, molecular ions can be field evaporated from the analyzed material and, then, can dissociate under the very intense electric field close to the field emitter. In this work, field evaporation of ZnO reveals the emission of Zn2O2 2+ ions and their dissociation into ZnO+ ions. It is shown that the repulsion between the produced ZnO+ ions is large enough to have a measurable effect on both the ion trajectories and times of flight. Comparison with numerical simulations of the ion trajectories gives information on the lifetime of the parent ions, the energy released by the dissociation and repulsion, and also the dissociation direction. This study not only opens the way to a new method to obtain information on the behavior of molecular ions in high electric fields by using an atom probe, but also opens up the interesting perspective to apply this technique to a wide class of materials and molecules.
ISSN:1089-5639
1520-5215
DOI:10.1021/acs.jpca.6b01791