Theoretical study of superfluid helium nanodroplet dynamics: cluster formation, ion solvation, Coulomb explosion, and quantum vortex detection and nucleation. (Ernesto García Alfonso / LCAR / Thèse). – 29/05/2024, 9H30

Soutenance de thèse

Ernesto García Alfonso LCAR, Salle de séminaires, 3ème étage 3R1

list of the jury members:

• Mme Nadine HALBERSTADT : Directrice de thèse (CNRS Occitanie Ouest)
• M. Lionel POISSON Rapporteur (CNRS, Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay)
• Mme Alexandra VIEL Rapporteuse (Institut de Physique de Rennes)
• M. Marcel MUDRICH Examinateur (Aarhus University, Denmark)
• Mme Pina ROMANIELLO Examinatrice (Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Toulouse )
• M. Manuel BARRANCO Invité (Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona)
• M. Marti PI PERICAY Invité (Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona)

Summary:
Several dynamical processes involving Helium-4 nanodroplets (HNDs) are studied theoretically, in relation with experiments. HNDs are clusters of several hundred to several hundred billions of 4He atoms which exhibit remarkable properties: very low temperature, T∼0.4K, superfluid properties, ability to pickup any dopant, weak interaction with any atom or molecule. The studied processes reflect the two main interests in HNDs: characterizing superfluid properties in a finite-size system (quantum vortex nucleation and detection), and using HNDs as an ideal environment to study dopant spectroscopy and dynamics (clustering, ion solvation, and Coulomb explosion). Extensive simulations are conducted using 4He-Density Functional Theory (4He-DFT) and its time-dependent version (4He-TDDFT). This approach can successfully simulate the equilibrium and dynamics of droplets of several thousand of atoms and provide detailed insight into the structural dynamics of the entire system which is not accessible experimentally: visualization of solvation shells, nature of helium droplet excitations. Rare gas (Rg) cluster formation is studied inside HeN under realistic conditions where one Rg atom collides with a solvated n-atom cluster to form the (n+1)-atom cluster. The 4He-DFT simulation results are compared to those of approximate atomistic approaches. Although quantum and superfluidity effects are better described with 4He-TDDFT, several common features are demonstrated. The most stable gas phase configuration is usually not produced, but an isomer with fewer bonds instead, and/or more dilute structures because of the rigidity of the helium solvation shell around the Rg atoms. The sinking of alkali (Ak) cations in HNDs is simulated in parallel with experimental investigations in the group of Stapelfeldt (Aarhus), in complement to earlier studies on Na+ sinking. It aims at shedding some light on the primary steps of solvation, by suddenly ionizing the alkali atom sitting in a dimple at the droplet surface. The build up of the first solvation shell around the ions is shown to be progressive, pointing to a Poissonian mechanism in which each He atom binds independently to the ion. For the lighter alkalis, the solvation shell is incomplete at the end of the dynamics, suggesting a kinetic rather than thermodynamical control of its formation. Coulomb explosion simulations of Ak2 molecules initially sitting at the droplet surface and suddenly ionized are conducted in order to understand the effect of the HNDs on Ak2++ fragmentation dynamics. The corresponding experiment in Stapelfeldt’s group in Aarhus aimed at measuring the proportion of triplet to singlet state in the formation of Ak2, and at imaging the vibrational wave function. Several parameters are examined in the simulations: droplet size, zero point motion of Ak2 vibration, and orientational distribution of Ak2 on the droplet surface. The results validate the experimental approach, and evidence an unexpected curvature of the ion trajectories which could be used to measure droplet sizes individually, something that has only been possible up to now for very large sizes (by X-ray diffraction). The nucleation of quantum vortices, a characteristic of helium superfluidity, has been revealed in very large droplets (VLD) and attributed to angular momentum created by friction of the liquid in the nozzle prior to expansion and cooling. Here droplet-droplet collisions are explored as an alternative mechanism. The results show the nucleation of quantum vortices at indentations of the merged droplet, a mechanism general for all droplet sizes. However, no signature has been found to detect vortices in smaller droplets so far. In this work, fluorescence absorption or excitation spectroscopy of alkali atoms is proposed: a vortex is shown to shift and broaden the alkali spectrum. The effect could be measurable above the first excited states.