ISA Thursday 5th December 2013

The first official user of the new ASTRID2 synchrotron radiation source, Head of Research Dr Paulo Limão Vieira from the Physics Department at The New University in Lisbon, visited the AU-UV beam line to perform Vacuum Ultra Violet (VUV) photoabsorption experiments on halogenated benzenes. This is part of a collaboration between The New University in Lisbon, University of Edinburgh, The Open University and Aarhus University on conjugated systems. Surprisingly very little data exists on the photoabsorption of halogenated benzenes, the last data taken in the VUV spectral region on iodobenzene was recorded using photographic plates just after the second world war. Modern synchrotron radiation sources can provide accurate data, which, through the combination of state-of-the-art experiments and theoretical calculations, shed new light on the complex electronic structure of these molecules, even eight decades after the last known measurement. The experiments are not only the first to be performed on the beam line, but the visit is also the first to be supported on ASTRID2 via the EU funded transnational access programme within the FP7 Infrastructure Programme CALIPSO.

Last Modified 05 December 2013