Time-resolved three-body fragmentation of methane in strong laser fields

Le résumé fourni par la source

Distinct strong-field fragmentation pathways can converge to identical final products in polyatomic molecules, making the underlying reaction dynamics difficult to identify. In methane, Jahn-Teller symmetry breaking after ionization creates distinct intermediate geometries that lead to different three-body routes within the same final fragments. Using delay-dependent, coincidence-resolved momentum correlations in pump-probe Coulomb-explosion imaging, we discriminate fragmentation pathways within the CH 2 + + H + + H + channel. We discover a delay-dependent sequential pathway with a transient H 2 fragment, characterized by symmetric proton-proton correlations, and separate it from an asymmetric sequential route and concerted fragmentation. Our results establish that delay-resolved coincidence mapping can disentangle intermediate-mediated fragmentation pathways even within an identical three-body final state, and show that in methane such pathways are seeded by Jahn-Teller-driven symmetry breaking.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.