Cold polar molecules in superfluid helium nanodroplets: Electrostatic deflection of imidazole, its complexes and fragments

Helium nanodroplet isolation is a unique method for investigating molecules and molecular structures captured in an inert, superfluid matrix. In particular, it is a highly productive tool for the study of very cold polar molecules and their assemblies. We recently demonstrated that beams of nanodroplets doped with polar molecules can be interrogated by electrostatic deflection, leading to remarkably large deflections on the order of millimeters. Here we apply this method to the imidazole molecule, which is a five-membered polar ring which plays an important role in biological processes. We are able to differentiate polar complexes of imidazole by their dipole moments, and identify their fragmentation pathways.