In this dissertation, I present experimental observations of multiply charged atomic ions (MCAI) generated from interactions of atomic/molecular clusters with moderately intense nanosecond laser pulses. This process is also known as Coulomb explosion (CE) and it has been extensively studied in intense laser fields using ultrashort pulses. Several prevailing theories...
In this dissertation, I describe the experimental investigation of electron diffraction of neutral and ionic clusters doped into superfluid helium droplets. The project is aimed at contributing to the development of an overall approach called ‘serial single molecule electron diffraction imaging (ss-EDI), a potential approach to solve macromolecule structures bypassing...
There is no shortage of challenges in modern science, including the task of obtaining high resolution images of biomolecular structures, such as proteins. Current atomic-resolution structure determination methods include x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which present issues like protein crystallization and loss of resolution with increasing size. Dr....
Obtaining high-resolution structures of biological macromolecules has become one of the biggest challenges in the scientific world. Dr. Wei Kong’s lab is currently working to overcome the limitations of current structure resolution techniques, such as x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Kong’s group hopes to develop a new protein...
In this dissertation, I describe the experimental investigation of large superfluid helium droplets. The goal and direction of this thesis is to facilitate the use of these droplets as part of our project ss-EDI. The overall scheme of ss-EDI is to dope proteins inside helium droplets and collect a diffraction...
In this dissertation, I describe the experimental investigation in electron diffraction of molecules in superfluid helium droplets. The project is part of an overall scheme called ‘single molecule serial electron diffraction imaging’ (SS-EDI), with the ultimate goal of building an apparatus to determine atomic structures from oriented macromolecules. In SS-EDI,...
In this dissertation, I describe the experimental investigation of catching ions in superfluid helium droplets. The ultimate goal of our project is to build a coherent electron diffraction apparatus for atomic structure determination from oriented single macromolecules. This involves generating protein ions from electrospray ionization (ESI) and doping them in...
In this dissertation, we describe a spectroscopic study of metal clusters and metal-ligand complexes using pulsed field ionization zero kinetic energy (PFI-ZEKE) photoelectron spectroscopy and mass analyzed threshold ionization (MATI) spectroscopy. Vibrational resolved spectra of sodium dimer, Na•NH₃, Na•(NH₃)₂ are presented. These spectra provide a direct measurement of the ionization...
In this dissertation, I present electronic spectroscopy of a few biologically relevant species and their complexes with solvent molecules in the gas phase using a variety of techniques, including resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI), laser induced fluorescence (LIF), and zero kinetic energy (ZEKE) photoelectron spectroscopy. My work on several methylated...