Tracking the ultraviolet-induced photochemistry of thiophenone during and after ultrafast ring opening.
Shashank PathakLea M IbeleRebecca BollCarlo CallegariAlexander DemidovichBenjamin ErkRaimund FeifelRuaridh ForbesMichele Di FraiaLuca GiannessiChristopher S HansenDavid M P HollandRebecca A IngleRobert MasonOksana PlekanKevin Charles PrinceArnaud RouzéeRichard J SquibbJan TrossMichael N R AshfoldBasile F E CurchodDaniel RollesPublished in: Nature chemistry (2020)
Photoinduced isomerization reactions lie at the heart of many chemical processes in nature. The mechanisms of such reactions are determined by a delicate interplay of coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics occurring on the femtosecond scale, followed by the slower redistribution of energy into different vibrational degrees of freedom. Here we apply time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy with a seeded extreme ultraviolet free-electron laser to trace the ultrafast ring opening of gas-phase thiophenone molecules following ultraviolet photoexcitation. When combined with ab initio electronic structure and molecular dynamics calculations of the excited- and ground-state molecules, the results provide insights into both the electronic and nuclear dynamics of this fundamental class of reactions. The initial ring opening and non-adiabatic coupling to the electronic ground state are shown to be driven by ballistic S-C bond extension and to be complete within 350 fs. Theory and experiment also enable visualization of the rich ground-state dynamics that involve the formation of, and interconversion between, ring-opened isomers and the cyclic structure, as well as fragmentation over much longer timescales.