Imaging CF3I Conical Intersection and Photodissociation Dynamics with Ultrafast Electron Diffraction

Ultrafast gas-phase electron diffraction captures the real-space photodissociation dynamics of CF3I through a conical intersection.

• Simultaneously characterizes one-photon and two-photon excitation channels in isolated CF3I molecules.
• Maps out the real-space trajectories of a coherent nuclear wave packet bifurcating onto two potential energy surfaces at the conical intersection.
• Resolves excitation of both umbrella and breathing vibrational modes in the CF3 fragment in multiple nuclear dimensions, benchmarking ab initio nonadiabatic dynamics calculations.