Xavier Huet

Background

• BA in Chemistry, ULB (2019-2022)
• MA in Chemistry, ULB (2022-2024)
• Master thesis: Rovibronic spectra of carbon monoxide dication CO^2+, ULB & UCLouvain (2024)
• PhD student in Sciences, ULB, FRIA Grant (2024-present)

PhD project

The determination of reaction rates for electron transfer (ET) and electron transfer dissociation (ETD) processes is crucial in several areas of physical chemistry, including understanding reactivity in interstellar media, planetary and cometary atmospheres, or astrophysics and laboratory plasmas. We focus here on electron transfers resulting from collisions between ions present in the solar wind and small molecules that make up the Earth's atmosphere, leading to the formation of charged molecular ions. The overall aim is to study, both theoretically and experimentally, the rovibrational distribution of the molecular ion resulting from the collision. Indeed, the reaction rates of atmospherically relevant processes can vary significantly for the same molecular species, depending on their vibrational or rotational levels. An innovative approach to obtain information about this distribution is the study of the ETD mechanism. This process is induced by ET from an excited Rydberg state of an atom to the produced molecular ion, leading to its dissociation in neutral fragments. The experiment will therefore reproduce these two reactions: the measurement of the kinetic energy release (KER) of the isolated atoms produced in the ETD reaction (2nd reaction) will give access to the rovibrational distribution of the molecular ion produced in the ET reaction (1st reaction). The experiment will be supported by a parallel theoretical study. The proton-dinitrogen collision will be used as a benchmark and the results will pave the way for the study of other systems. Besides characterizing this type of reaction, this study will make it possible to assess the experimental methodology for the transfer of electrons bound to Rydberg atoms and to improve our knowledge of the theoretical study of the diabatization of polyatomic molecules and their dynamics, particularly when Rydberg states are involved.

Publications

See here.

Contact

Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES)(https://squares.ulb.be//),
Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP160/09
50 Av. F.D. Roosevelt, B-1050 Belgium
E-mail