PhD Thesis: “Electron induced radiation damage in biomolecules and clusters" (2016-2020)
Adviser: Prof. Doutor Samuel Eden
The project will be centred on experimental work in the Molecular Clusters Group (Eden and co-workers) with the additional opportunity of gaining experience of calculations in the Electron Scattering Group (Gorfinkiel and co-workers). The Molecular Clusters Group group specializes in multi-photon ionization experiments (simultaneously providing information on neutral electronic excited states and ionic states) and electron collision experiments on biomolecules and clusters [2]. Combinations of different molecular geometries (isomers, tautomers, and conformers) and clusters within neutral target beams can present a major challenge in analyzing radiation-induced processes and drawing rigorous comparisons with theory. Therefore the Group is developing an experiment that applies Stark deflection [3] in strong electric field gradients to select specific neutral species from mixed beams based on their effective dipole moment / mass ratios. Andre Rebelo will carry out the first multi-photon ionization and electron collision experiments on selected tautomers and clusters of amino acids in Stark-deflected beams.