Time-, angle- and kinetic-energy-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of highly excited states of NO

Abstract

We investigate non-adiabatic dynamics of NO molecules that are photo-excited in the vacuum ultraviolet photon energy range using time-resolved velocity map imaging. Highly excited valence and Rydberg states are populated with a tunable (147–151 nm) femtosecond laser pulse and then ionized by a time-delayed near-IR laser pulse. Three main contributions are observed in the photoelectron kinetic spectra with corresponding electron yields that show pronounced oscillations. Two oscillations are assigned to ro-vibronic coupling in the valence-Rydberg mixture of the B and 4dδ N2Δ(v = 0) states and the B2Π(v = 25) and 4pπ K2Π(v = 1) states, respectively. We assign a third oscillation to originate from a coupling between two Rydberg states.