Direct momentum imaging of charge transfer following site-selective ionization

Abstract

We study ultrafast charge rearrangement in dissociating 2-iodopropane (2-C3H7I) using site-selective core-ionization at the iodine atom. Clear signatures of electron transfer between the neutral propyl fragment and multiply charged iodine ions are observed in the recorded delay-dependent ion momentum distributions. The detected charge transfer pathway is only favorable within a small (few angstrom), charge-state-dependent spatial window located at C-I distances longer than that of the neutral ground-state molecule. These results offer new insights into the physics underpinning charge transfer in isolated molecules and pave the way for a new class of time-resolved studies