Nanoscience in the 21st century is thriving – nanoparticles are being studied in unprecedented detail across a broad spectrum of disciplines. Systematic studies with vacuum ultraviolet light (VUV) can contribute to the study of nanoparticle chemistry and physics in new and important ways. We have initiated a major program in the study of nanoparticles at the Chemical Dynamics Beamline at the Advanced Light Source. The project encompasses novel studies of production, detection, size measurement and selection, and chemical interactions of nanoparticles. Photoelectron imaging of size selected nanoparticles allows a window into probing the electronic structure of solids.We will report imaging studies on a variety of nanoparticles (metals, alkali halides, amino acids) and discuss a novel size dependent asymmetry in the angular distributions of the emitted photoelectron. We will also show that coupling of intense VUV light with nanoparticle beams allows us to perform mass spectrometry on fragile biological molecules. We will report our results for small amino acids and peptides and explain the fragmentation dynamics of these systems.
LBNL – Berkeley, CA