Complex carbonaceous molecules and clusters: Charge exchange, energy transfer, and molecular growth

This project aims to significantly advance the understanding of charge exchange, energy transfer and bond formation processes in interactions between isolated molecules or clusters and atomic or molecular ions.

The main focus will be on carbon containing molecules such as e.g. carbon chains, hydrocarbons, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), biomolecules and fullerenes.

The goal is to unravel the conditions for the formation and survival of complex molecules in e.g. astrophysical environments, and the mechanisms underlying radiation damage of the molecular building blocks of life at the nanoscale.

For this purpose, we aim to perform combined experimental and theoretical studies of a range of so far unexplored reaction pathways and mechanisms.We plan experiments at the national infrastructure DESIREE (Double ElectroStatic Ion Ring Experiment) at Stockholm University.

Here, we will fully exploit its unique features in studies of interactions between positively and negatively charged ions where the collision energy may be fine-tuned down to the meV range, and in studies of molecular and cluster cooling processes in new time domains using e.g. action spectroscopy techniques.

We aim to study ion induced intra-cluster reactions at the ARIBE facility in Caen, France.

We will develop and test new theoretical models independently and through comparisons with the present and other state-of-the-art experimental results.