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The chemical and physical processes involved in the shock-to-detonation transition of energetic solids are not fully understood due to difficulties in probing the fast dynamics involved in initiation. Here, we employ shock interferometry experiments with sub-20-ps time resolution to study highly textured (110) pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) thin films during the early stages of shock compression using ultrafast laser-driven shock wave methods. We observe evidence of rapid exothermic chemical reactions in the PETN thin films for interface particle velocities above ∼1.05 km/s as indicated by shock velocities and pressures well above the unreacted Hugoniot. The time scale of our experiment suggests that exothermic reactions begin less than 50 ps behind the shock front for these high-density PETN thin films. Thermochemical calculations for partially reacted Hugoniots also support this interpretation. The experimentally observed time scale of reactivity could be used to narrow possible initiation mechanisms.

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) is a common secondary explosive and has been used extensively to study shock initiation and energy propagation in energetic materials. We report 2D IR measurements of PETN thin films that resolve vibrational energy transfer and relaxation mechanisms. Ultrafast anisotropy measurements reveal a sub-500 fs reorientation of transition dipoles in thin films of vapor-deposited PETN that is absent in solution measurements, consistent with intermolecular energy transfer. The anisotropy is frequency dependent, suggesting spectrally heterogeneous vibrational relaxation. Cross peaks are observed in 2D IR spectra that resolve a specific energy transfer pathway with a 2 ps time scale. Transition dipole coupling calculations of the nitrate ester groups in the crystal lattice predict that the intermolecular couplings are as large or larger than the intramolecular couplings. The calculations match well with the experimental frequencies and the anisotropy, leading us to conclude that the observed cross peak is measuring energy transfer between two eigenstates that are extended over multiple PETN molecules. Measurements of the transition dipole strength indicate that these vibrational modes are coherently delocalized over at least 15-30 molecules. We discuss the implications of vibrational relaxation between coherently delocalized eigenstates for mechanisms relevant to explosives.

We report the direct angle-resolved measurement of collision-induced alignment of short-lived electronically excited molecules using crossed atomic and molecular beams. Utilizing velocity-mapped ion imaging, we measure the alignment of NO in its first electronically excited state (A(2)Σ(+)) following single collisions with Ne atoms. We prepare A(2)Σ(+) (v = 0, N = 0, j = 0.5) and by comparing images obtained using orthogonal linear probe laser polarizations, we experimentally determine the degree of alignment induced by collisional rotational excitation for the final rotational states N' = 4, 5, 7, and 9. The experimental results are compared to theoretical predictions using both a simple classical hard-shell model and quantum scattering calculations on an ab initio potential energy surface (PES). The experimental results show overall trends in the scattering-angle dependent polarization sensitivity that are accounted for by the simple classical model, but structure in the scattering-angle dependence that is not. The quantum scattering calculations qualitatively reproduce this structure, and we demonstrate that the experimental measurements have the sensitivity to critique the best available potential surfaces. This sensitivity to the PES is in contrast to that predicted for ground-state NO(X) alignment.

We present an improved quantum defect theory model for the "s," "p," "d," and "f" Rydberg series of CaF. The model, which is the result of an exhaustive fit of high-resolution spectroscopic data, parameterizes the electronic structure of the ten ("s"Σ, "p"Σ, "p"Π, "d"Σ, "d"Π, "d"Δ, "f"Σ, "f"Π, "f"Δ, and "f"Φ) Rydberg series of CaF in terms of a set of twenty μ(ll('))(Λ) quantum defect matrix elements and their dependence on both internuclear separation and on the binding energy of the outer electron. Over 1000 rovibronic Rydberg levels belonging to 131 observed electronic states of CaF with n∗ ≥ 5 are included in the fit. The correctness and physical validity of the fit model are assured both by our intuition-guided combinatorial fit strategy and by comparison with R-matrix calculations based on a one-electron effective potential. The power of this quantum defect model lies in its ability to account for the rovibronic energy level structure and nearly all dynamical processes, including structure and dynamics outside of the range of the current observations. Its completeness places CaF at a level of spectroscopic characterization similar to NO and H(2).

We report direct doubly differential (quantum state and angle-resolved) scattering measurements involving short-lived electronically excited molecules using crossed molecular beams. In our experiment, supersonic beams of nitric oxide and argon atoms collide at 90°. In the crossing region, NO molecules are excited to the A(2)Σ(+)state by a pulsed nanosecond laser, undergo rotationally inelastic collisions with Ar atoms, and are then detected 400 ns later (approximately twice the radiative lifetime of the A(2)Σ(+)state) by 1 + 1(') multiphoton ionization via the E(2)Σ(+) state. The velocity distributions of the scattered molecules are recorded using velocity-mapped ion imaging. The resulting images provide a direct measurement of the state-to-state differential scattering cross sections. These results demonstrate that sufficient scattering events occur during the short lifetimes typical of molecular excited states (∼200 ns, in this case) to allow spectroscopically detected quantum-state-resolved measurements of products of excited-state collisions., (© 2011 American Institute of Physics.)

We report the first measured differential cross sections for rotationally inelastic collisions between ND(3) and Ne, obtained using velocity-mapped ion imaging. In these experiments, ND(3) molecules initially in the J = 0, K = 0 and J = 1, K = 1 quantum states collide with Ne atoms at a center-of-mass collision energy of 65 meV, leading to rotational excitation of ND(3). Differential cross sections are then determined from images of the rotationally excited scattered molecules using an iterative extraction method. These measurements complement and compare well with previous measurements of differential cross sections for the ammonia-rare gas system (Meyer, H. J. Chem. Phys. 1994, 101, 6697.; Meyer, H. J. Phys. Chem. 1995, 99, 1101.) and are also relevant to the production of cold ND(3) molecules by crossed-beam scattering (Kay, J. J.; van de Meerakker, S. Y. T.; Strecker, K. E.; Chandler, D. W. Faraday Discuss. 2009, DOI: 10.1039/B819256C).

The Stark effect in molecular Rydberg states is qualitatively different from the Stark effect in atomic Rydberg states because of the anisotropy of the ion core and the existence of rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom. These uniquely molecular features cause the electric-field-induced decoupling of the Rydberg electron from the body frame to proceed in several stages in a molecule. Because the transition dipole moment among the same-n* Rydberg states is much larger than the permanent dipole moment of the ion core, the decoupling of the Rydberg electron from the ion core proceeds gradually. In the first stage, analyzed in detail in this paper, l and N are mixed by the external electric field, while N+ is conserved. In the further stages, as the external electric field increases, N+, n*, and v+ are expected to undergo mixing. We have characterized these stages in n*=13, v+=1 states of CaF. The large permanent dipole moment of CaF+ makes CaF qualitatively different from the other molecules in which the Stark effect in Rydberg states has been described (H2, Na2, Li2, NO, and H3) and makes it an ideal testbed for documenting the competition between the external and CaF+ dipole electric fields. We use the weak-field Stark effect to gain access to the lowest-N rotational levels of f, g, and h states and to assign their actual or nominal N+ quantum number. Lowest-N rotational levels provide information needed to disentangle the short-range and long-range interactions between the Rydberg electron and the ion core. We diagonalize an effective Hamiltonian matrix to determine the l-characters of the 3 < or = l < or = 5 core-nonpenetrating 2Sigma+ states and to characterize their mixing with the core-penetrating states. We conclude that the mixing of the l=4, N-N+=-4(g(-4)) state with lower-l 2Sigma+ states is stronger than documented in our previous multichannel quantum defect theory and long-range fits to zero-field spectra.

We have produced translationally cold ammonia (ND3) molecules in various quantum states by kinematic cooling. In these experiments, ND3 molecules are brought nearly to rest in the (J, K) = (2,0), (2,1), (2,2), (3,1), (3,2), and (3,3) rotational levels of the ground vibronic state by rotationally-inelastic collisions with Ne atoms. The cold molecules are produced in quantum-state-dependent velocity distributions whose laboratory frame velocities are measured to be between 21 m s(-1) (E(trans)/k = 530 mk) and 32 m s(-1) (E(trans)/k = 1.2 K), and are calculated to be between 7.5 m s(-1) (E(trans)/k = 70 mK) and 27 m s(-1) (E(trans)/k = 880 mK). Due to systematic experimental effects, the measured velocities are upper limits to the actual velocities. These temperatures are low enough that it should be possible to use electrostatic traps to confine cold molecules in many of these quantum states.

Observation and analysis of the f([script-l]=3), g([script-l]=4), and h([script-l]=5) Rydberg series of CaF in the range 13