Low-energy electron collisions with tetrafluoroethene, C2F4

Conical intersections and low-lying electronic states of tetrafluoroethylene

The low-lying electronic states of tetrafluoroethylene (C2 F4 ) are characterized theoretically for the first time using equation-of-motion coupled cluster theory (EOM-CCSD), and complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2). Computations are performed for vertical excitation energies, equilibrium geometries, minimum-energy conical intersections, and potential energy curves along three geometric coordinates: 1) twisting of the FCCF dihedral angle, 2) pyramidalization of the CF2 group, and 3) migration of a fluorine atom resulting in an ethylidene-like (CF3 CF) structure. The results suggest two relaxation pathways from the Rydberg-3s excited electronic state to the ground state. These relaxation pathways are discussed in conjunction with the femtosecond photoionization spectroscopy results of Trushin et al. [ChemPhysChem- 2004, 5, 1389].

Electron and positron scattering from 1,1-C2H2F2

1,1-difluoroethylene (1,1-C2H2F2) molecules have been studied for the first time experimentally and theoretically by electron and positron impact. 0.4-1000 eV electron and 0.2-1000 eV positron impact total cross sections (TCSs) were measured using a retarding potential time-of-flight apparatus. In order to probe the resonances observed in the electron TCSs, a crossed-beam method was used to investigate vibrational excitation cross sections over the energy range of 1.3-49 eV and scattering angles 90 degrees and 120 degrees for the two loss energies 0.115 and 0.381 eV corresponding to the dominant C-H (nu2 and nu9) stretching and the combined C-F (nu3) stretching and CH2 (nu11) rocking vibrations, respectively. Electron impact elastic integral cross sections are also reported for calculations carried out using the Schwinger multichannel method with pseudopotentials for the energy range from 0.5 to 50 eV in the static-exchange approximation and from 0.5 to 20 eV in the static-exchange plus polarization approximation. Resonance peaks observed centered at about 2.3, 6.5, and 16 eV in the TCSs have been shown to be mainly due to the vibrational and elastic channels, and assigned to the B2, B1, and A1 symmetries, respectively. The pi* resonance peak at 1.8 eV in C2H4 is observed shifted to 2.3 eV in 1,1-C2H2F2 and to 2.5 eV in C2F4; a phenomenon attributed to the decreasing C=C bond length from C2H4 to C2F4. For positron impact a conspicuous peak is observed below the positronium formation threshold at about 1 eV, and other less pronounced ones centered at about 5 and 20 eV.

Electronic excitations of fluoroethylenes

Several lowest-lying singlet electronic states of vinyl fluoride, trans-, cis-, and 1,1-difluoroethylene, trifluoroethylene, and tetrafluoroethylene were investigated by using symmetry-adapted cluster configuration interaction theory. Basis sets up to Dunning's aug-cc-pVTZ augmented with appropriate Rydberg functions were utilized for the calculations. Calculated excitation energies show a good agreement with the available experimental values. Even in the troublesome pi-->pi(*) transitions, the excitation energies obtained in the present study agree well with the experimental values except in one or two fluoroethylenes. Strong mixing between different states was noticed in a few fluoroethylenes; especially the mixing is very strong between pi-pi(*) and pi-3ppi states in trifluoroethylene. No pure pi-sigma(*) excited state was found in almost all the fluoroethylenes. Several assignments and reassignments of features in the experimental spectra were suggested. The present study does not support the existing argument that the interaction between the pi-pi(*) and sigma-sigma(*) states is the reason behind the blueshift of around 1.25 eV in the pi-pi(*) excitation energy of tetrafluoroethylene. Possible reasons, including structural changes, for this shift are discussed in detail. Several low-lying triplet excited states were also studied.

Imaging of Ultrafast Molecular Elimination Reactions

Ultrafast molecular elimination reactions are studied using the velocity map ion imaging technique in combination with femtosecond pump-probe laser excitation. A pump laser is used to initiate the dissociative reaction, and after a predetermined time delay a probe laser "interrogates" the molecular system. Ionic fragments are detected with a two-dimensional velocity map imaging detector providing detailed information about the energetic and vectorial properties of mass selected photofragments. In this paper we discuss the ultrafast elimination of molecular iodine, I(2), from IF(2)C-CF(2)I, where the iodine atoms originate from neighboring carbon atoms. By varying the femtosecond delay between pump and probe pulse, it is found that elimination of molecular iodine is a concerted process, although the two carbon-iodine bonds are not broken synchronously. Energetic considerations suggest that the crucial step in this fragmentation process is an electron transfer between the two iodine atoms in the parent molecule, which leads to Coulombic attraction and the creation of an ion-pair state in the molecular iodine fragment.

Elastic electron scattering by C2F4

Recent measurements [R. Panajotovic, M. Jelisavcic, R. Kajita, T. Tanaka, M. Kitajima, H. Cho, H. Tanaka, and S. J. Buckman, J. Chem. Phys. 121, 4559 (2004)] and calculations [C. Trevisan, A. E. Orel, and T. N. Rescigno, Phys. Rev. A 70, 012704 (2004)] of the elastic electron cross section for C(2)F(4) differ materially from our earlier calculations [C. Winstead and V. McKoy, J. Chem. Phys. 116, 1380 (2002)]. Some of the differences are readily attributed to approximations made in our computations, but an overall difference in cross section magnitude above ca. 10 eV was surprising. Here we report a reexamination of the electron-C(2)F(4) elastic cross section. After eliminating or minimizing various possible sources of error, we continue to predict a substantially larger cross section at higher energies.

Electron scattering from tetrafluoroethylene

We report experimental results for electron scattering from tetrafluoroethylene, C2F4, obtained from measurements in two laboratories. An extensive set of differential, integral, and momentum transfer cross sections is provided for elastic scattering for incident electron energies from 1 to 100 eV and inelastic (vibrational excitation) scattering for incident electron energies at 3, 6, 7.5, 8, and 15 eV, and for scattering angles ranging from 10 degrees to 130 degrees. To highlight the role of intermediate negative ions (resonances) in the scattering process we have also measured excitation functions for elastic scattering and vibrational excitation of the ground electronic state of C2F4 for incident energies between 1.5 and 20 eV. Our results are compared with recent theoretical calculations and a limited number of other experimental results.