Photofragment-ion imaging

Photofragment ion imaging or, more generally, Product Imaging is an experimental technique for making measurements of the velocity of product molecules or particles following a chemical reaction or the photodissociation of a parent molecule. The method uses a two-dimensional detector, usually a microchannel plate, to record the arrival positions of state-selected ions created by resonantly enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI). The first experiment using photofragment ion imaging was performed by David W Chandler and Paul L Houston in 1987 on the phototodissociation dynamics of methyl iodide (iodomethane, CH₃I).