Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8909
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Funding
- CNRS, 'MUSES' programme Blanc, XLIC, federation de physique Marie-Ampere, Laser lab Europe [ANR-10-BLAN-0428-01]
- DFG
- CSIR, New Delhi
- European Research Council [246976]
- Dutch Science Agency, NWO, Dutch Astrochemistry Network
- Spinoza premie from the Dutch Science Agency, NWO
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [ANR-10-BLAN-0428] Funding Source: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
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Highly excited molecular species are at play in the chemistry of interstellar media and are involved in the creation of radiation damage in a biological tissue. Recently developed ultrashort extreme ultraviolet light sources offer the high excitation energies and ultrafast time-resolution required for probing the dynamics of highly excited molecular states on femtosecond (fs) (1 fs = 10(-15)s) and even attosecond (as) (1 as = 10(-18) s) timescales. Here we show that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) undergo ultrafast relaxation on a few tens of femtoseconds timescales, involving an interplay between the electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom. Our work reveals a general property of excited radical PAHs that can help to elucidate the assignment of diffuse interstellar absorption bands in astrochemistry, and provides a benchmark for the manner in which coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics determines reaction pathways in large molecules following extreme ultraviolet excitation.
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