In an effort to understand the excitation, ionization, and relaxation process within helium droplets, we have studied both pure and doped helium droplets. I will give a brief summary of our work on the ionization dynamics of pure helium droplets followed by recent doped droplet results on the excitation and subsequent fragmentation of SF6 within the droplets. Through a combination of time-of-flight mass spectrometry and photoion and photoelectron imaging, we were able to obtain new insights into the mechanisms of photoionization within the droplet and the cooling of the hot photofragment ions produced by dissociative photoionization of SF6.
Advanced Light Source – LBNL, Berkeley, CA, USA