Generating high density molecular jets of complex neutral organic molecules using micro-sized Tesla valves

TL;DR

This paper introduces micro Tesla valves to efficiently generate dense, neutral molecular jets of complex organic molecules for gas-phase studies, enabling new ultrafast research possibilities.

Contribution

It presents a novel micro Tesla valve design that significantly enhances molecular jet density without ionization, facilitating studies of complex neutral molecules.

Findings

Order-of-magnitude increase in molecular ion signal with Tesla valves

Efficient unidirectional flow of cis-stilbene molecules

Enables gas-phase studies of large, complex molecules

Abstract

We report the design and implementation of multiple Tesla type micro valves in the target delivery system of a reaction microscope (ReMi) to study gas phase structural dynamics of complex polyatomic molecules, when no delivery system currently exists that can deliver dense enough molecular jets of neutral complex molecules without ionizing or exciting the target. We show, the Tesla valves provide an efficient unidirectional flow of the cis-stilbene molecules into the ReMi. We demonstrate using a bubbler with Tesla valves an order-of-magnitude increase in the detected stilbene molecular ion signal following the strong-field tunnel ionization (SFTI), compared to conventional bubbler without any Tesla valves. Our results for the first time, opens the door for studying large, complex neutral molecules in the gas-phase with low vapour pressures in future ultrafast studies.