Sandra Brünken

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) ions are crucial intermediates in interstellar chemistry and may play a key role in the infrared emission features observed in space. Here, we investigate the infrared spectra of the indenyl (C$_9$H$_7^-$) and fluorenyl (C$_{13}$H$_9^-$) anions and the indenyl cation (C$_9$H$_7^+$) using infrared pre-dissociation (IRPD) spectroscopy. The experiments were performed in a cryogenic 22 pole ion trap at the FELion beamline of the tunable free-electron laser FELIX. Spectral analysis of the two anionic PAHs, in combination with density functional theory (DFT) computations, revealed key vibrational modes near 1300 cm$^{-1}$, making these ions potential carriers of the 7.7 μm PAH emission band seen in many astronomical objects. The feature-rich spectrum of cationic indenyl could not be entirely explained by modeling through time-independent anharmonic DFT calculations. Although a better match has been achieved through molecular dynamics simulations, we cannot completely rule out the presence of multiple cationic isomers of the H-loss fragments of indene in the experiments.

The so-called aromatic infrared bands are attributed to emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The observed variations toward different regions in space are believed to be caused by contributions of different classes of PAH molecules, i.e. with respect to their size, structure, and charge state. Laboratory spectra of members of these classes are needed to compare them to observations and to benchmark quantum-chemically computed spectra of these species. In this paper we present the experimental infrared spectra of three different PAH dications, naphthalene$^{2+}$, anthracene$^{2+}$, and phenanthrene$^{2+}$, in the vibrational fingerprint region 500-1700~cm$^{-1}$. The dications were produced by electron impact ionization of the vapors with 70 eV electrons, and they remained stable against dissociation and Coulomb explosion. The vibrational spectra were obtained by IR predissociation of the PAH$^{2+}$ complexed with neon in a 22-pole cryogenic ion trap setup coupled to a free-electron infrared laser at the Free-Electron Lasers for Infrared eXperiments (FELIX) Laboratory. We performed anharmonic density-functional theory calculations for both singly and doubly charged states of the three molecules. The experimental band positions showed excellent agreement with the calculated band positions of the singlet electronic ground state for all three doubly charged species, indicating its higher stability over the triplet state. The presence of several strong combination bands and additional weaker features in the recorded spectra, especially in the 10-15~$μ$m region of the mid-IR spectrum, required anharmonic calculations to understand their effects on the total integrated intensity for the different charge states. These measurements, in tandem with theoretical calculations, will help in the identification of this specific class of doubly-charged PAHs as carriers of AIBs.

The vibrationally resolved spectra of the pyrene cation and doubly-dehydrogenated pyrene cation (C$_{16}$H$_{10}$$^{.+}$; Py$^+$ and C$_{16}$H$_{8}$$^{.+}$; ddPy$^+$) are presented. Infrared predissociation spectroscopy is employed to measure the vibrational spectrum of both species using a cryogenically cooled 22-pole ion trap. The spectrum of Py$^+$ allows a detailed comparison with harmonic and anharmonic density functional theory (DFT) calculated normal mode frequencies. The spectrum of ddPy$^+$ is dominated by absorption features from two isomers (4,5-ddPy$^+$ and 1,2-ddPy$^+$) with, at most, minor contributions from other isomers. These findings can be extended to explore the release of hydrogen from interstellar PAH species. Our results suggest that this process favours the loss of adjacent hydrogen atoms.

The fragment of the 1-methylpyrene cation, C17H11+, is expected to exist in two isomeric forms, 1-pyrenemethylium PyrCH2+ and the tropylium containing species PyrC7+ . We measured the infrared (IR) action spectrum of cold C17H11+ tagged with Ne using a cryogenic ion trap instrument coupled to the FELIX laser. Comparison of the experimental data with density functional theory calculations allows us to identify the PyrCH2+ isomer in our experiments. The IR Multi-Photon Dissociation spectrum was also recorded following the C2H2 loss channel. Its analysis suggests combined effects of anharmonicity and isomerisation while heating the trapped ions, as shown by molecular dynamics simulations.

Aims. This paper reports accurate laboratory frequencies of the rotational ground state transitions of two astronomically relevant molecular ions, NH3D+ and CF+. Methods. Spectra in the millimeter-wave band were recorded by the method of rotational state-selective attachment of He-atoms to the molecular ions stored and cooled in a cryogenic ion trap held at 4 K. The lowest rotational transition in the A state (ortho state) of NH$_3$D$^+$ ($J_K = 1_0 - 0_0$), and the two hyperfine components of the ground state transition of CF$^+$($J = 1 - 0$) were measured with a relative precision better than $10^{-7}$. Results. For both target ions the experimental transition frequencies agree with recent observations of the same lines in different astronomical environments. In the case of NH$_3$D$^+$ the high-accuracy laboratory measurements lend support to its tentative identification in the interstellar medium. For CF$^+$ the experimentally determined hyperfine splitting confirms previous quantum-chemical calculations and the intrinsic spectroscopic nature of a double-peaked line profile observed in the $J = 1 - 0$ transition towards the Horsehead PDR.