Dr. David Villeneuve

National Research Council

Attosecond Imaging of Molecular Structure and Molecular Orbitals

Tuesday, November 15, 2007

4:30 p.m.

Cardwell 102

Photoelectron spectroscopy has long been used to learn about the electronic structure of molecules. Surprisingly, an intense femtosecond laser can yield a time-reversed version of PES. The laser field tunnel-ionizes a molecule; the electron can recombine with the parent ion and give off an xuv photon. The photon contains information about the molecule. An image of a single electron orbital wave function can be obtained within the Hartree Fock approximation. Pump-probe experiments with femtosecond and even attosecond time resolution can be performed to observe chemical reactions and electronic motion. A range of experiments will be described that seek to understand the potential of this new technique.