During his PhD stduies, Simon Høgh Albrechtsen has research how quickly single particles get solvated in a liquid. The goal of the project was to realize an experimental model-system for the solvation process – a process that is typically too complex to be measured in the laboratory. Simon Høgh Albrechtsen has attained this goal by using a microscopic helium droplet as the solvent to solvate single sodium ions. By using ultrashort laser pulses, this process can be both started and stopped, and thereby the solvation dynamics can be measured in the ultrashort timescale.

This experiment is the first time that the solvation dynamics of a single isolated ion introduced into a liquid has been measured in the laboratory, and it provides a new model system that can be used to measure chemical dynamics on the atomic size scale and the ultrashort timescale.

The PhD study was completed at Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Wednesday, 2 October 2024 at 13.00
Place: Building 1525, room 626, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C
Title of PhD thesis: Ion Solvation Dynamics in Helium Droplets
Contact information: Simon Høgh Albrechtsen, e-mail: simon.hogh@phys.au.dk, tel.: +45 31602699
Members of the assessment committee:
Professor Paul Scheier, Innsbruck Physics – Research Center, University of Innsbruck, Østrig
Senior Researcher Lionel Poisson, Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Frankrig
Associate Professor Jan Joachim Arlt (chair), Institute of Physics and Astronimy, Aarhus Universitet, Danmark
Main supervisor:
Professor Henrik Stapelfeldt, Institute of Chemistry, Aarhus University, Denmark
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Natural Sciences/GSNS, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, 8000 Aarhus C