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We determined absolute rate coefficients for the recurrent fluorescence (RF) process in C6– anions at excitation energies above the adiabatic electron attachment energy of 4.18 eV. The experiment was performed by extracting C6– ions from a sputter ion source and storing them in a bent electrostatic ion beam trap. After 1 s of storage, during which the anions cooled down to temperatures close to room temperature, they were excited by a short laser pulse and the neutralization rate due to vibrational autodetachment (VAD) was measured as a function of time at several wavelengths. Due to the different energy dependence of the two competing decays via the RF and the VAD process, their contributions to the measured total decay rate coefficients could be disentangled. For excitation energies ≲4.6 eV, the decay is found to be dominated by the RF process with decay rate coefficients on the order of 5 × 104 s–1. The result clearly demonstrates the presence of the RF process in C6– and illustrates the importance of ...

We report on our recent studies of dissociative recombination (DR) employing two different fragment imaging detection techniques at the TSR storage ring in Heidelberg, Germany. Principles of an upgraded 3D optical system and the new energy-sensitive multistrip detector (EMU) are explained together with possible applications in reaction dynamics studies. With the EMU imaging detector we succeeded to observe the branching ratios after DR of deuterated hydronium ions D(3)O(+) at energies of 0-0.5 and 4-21 eV. The branching ratios are almost constant at low energies while above 6 eV both oxygen-producing channels O + D + D + D and O + D(2) + D strongly increase and dominate by about 85% at 11 eV. To demonstrate further capabilities of our fragment imaging detectors, we also summarize some of our additional recent studies on DR of molecular ions important for astrophysics as well as for fundamental unimolecular dynamics.

Self-assembly (SA) of long-chain alkanethiols on copper was studied. Two factors were found to have substantial influence on the SA process: (i) the chemical reactivity of Cu toward substances present in the adsorption solution, particularly the solvent, and (ii) surface pretreatment, which influences the amount of oxide and the surface morphology. Both factors are less important in the case of SA onto gold because of its chemical inertness. Monolayers of octadecanethiol (C18SH) were adsorbed from different solvents (ethanol, toluene, and bicyclohexyl) at various thiol concentrations onto Cu surfaces pretreated in several different ways. The monolayers were characterized by contact-angle measurements, grazing-incidence Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning force microscopy. Ethanol, the most common solvent for alkanethiol SA, is found to have a negative effect on monolayer SA apparently because of its chemical reactivity toward copper. With toluene as a solvent, better oriented and more c...