Photodissociation in resonance enhanced photodissociation spectroscopy

Action spectroscopy techniques such as resonance enhanced photodissociation spectroscopy (REPD) are widely used to measure the spectra of gas-phase ions. REPD involves measuring the photodissociation products of an ion as a function of wavelength. The REPD spectrum is always somewhat different from the pure absorption spectrum, but additional information about the photodissociation and potential energy landscape of the ion is encoded in the photodissociation spectrum. This talk will discuss how the photodissociation information from REPD can be valuable, in particular for some example cases of flavin adenine dinucleotide dianions, and the thermochemistry of small metal cations. Additionally, the obstacles that photodissociation poses for measuring high resolution spectra of photostable ions will be discussed, and how these obstacles can be overcome with the novel new method of leak-out spectroscopy that measures spectra without dissociating the ion.