Communication: Gas-phase structural isomer identification by Coulomb explosion of aligned molecules

Michael Burt^1,a),  Kasra Amini^1,a), Jason W. L. Lee¹, Lars Christiansen², Rasmus R. Johansen³, Yuki Kobayashi⁴, James D. Pickering², Claire Vallance¹, Mark Brouard^1,b), and Henrik Stapelfeldt^2,c)

The gas-phase structures of four difluoroiodobenzene and two dihydroxybromobenzene isomers were identified by correlating the emission angles of atomic fragment ions created, following femtosecond laser-induced Coulomb explosion. The structural determinations were facilitated by confining the most polarizable axis of each molecule to the detection plane prior to the Coulomb explosion event using one-dimensional laser-induced adiabatic alignment. For a molecular target consisting of two difluoroiodobenzene isomers, each constituent structure could additionally be singled out and distinguished.