@article{PietzschHenniesMiedemaetal.2015, author = {Pietzsch, Annette and Hennies, Franz and Miedema, Piter S. and Kennedy, Brian and Schlappa, Justine and Schmitt, Thorsten and Strocov, Vladimir N. and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {Snapshots of the Fluctuating Hydrogen Bond Network in Liquid Water on the Sub-Femtosecond Timescale with Vibrational Resonant Inelastic x-ray Scattering}, series = {Physical review letters}, volume = {114}, journal = {Physical review letters}, number = {8}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, address = {College Park}, issn = {0031-9007}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.088302}, pages = {5}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Liquid water molecules interact strongly with each other, forming a fluctuating hydrogen bond network and thereby giving rise to the anomalous phase diagram of liquid water. Consequently, symmetric and asymmetric water molecules have been found in the picosecond time average with IR and optical Raman spectroscopy. With subnatural linewidth resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at vibrational resolution, we take sub-femtosecond snapshots of the electronic and structural properties of water molecules in the hydrogen bond network. We derive a strong dominance of nonsymmetric molecules in liquid water in contrast to the gas phase on the sub-femtosecond timescale of RIXS and determine the fraction of highly asymmetrically distorted molecules.}, language = {en} } @article{RubenssonSoderstromBinggelietal.2015, author = {Rubensson, Jan-Erik and Soderstrom, Johan and Binggeli, Christian and Grasjo, Joakim and Andersson, Johan and Sathe, Conny and Hennies, Franz and Bisogni, Valentina and Huang, Yaobo and Olalde, Paul and Schmitt, Thorsten and Strocov, Vladimir N. and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Kennedy, Brian and Pietzsch, Annette}, title = {Rydberg-Resolved Resonant Inelastic Soft X-Ray Scattering: Dynamics at Core Ionization Thresholds}, series = {Physical review letters}, volume = {114}, journal = {Physical review letters}, number = {13}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, address = {College Park}, issn = {0031-9007}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.133001}, pages = {5}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra excited in the immediate vicinity of the core-level ionization thresholds of N-2 have been recorded. Final states of well-resolved symmetry-selected Rydberg series converging to valence-level ionization thresholds with vibrational excitations are observed. The results are well described by a quasi-two-step model which assumes that the excited electron is unaffected by the radiative decay. This threshold dynamics simplifies the interpretation of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra considerably and facilitates characterization of low-energy excited final states in molecular systems.}, language = {en} } @article{WernetKunnusJosefssonetal.2015, author = {Wernet, Philippe and Kunnus, Kristjan and Josefsson, Ida and Rajkovic, Ivan and Quevedo, Wilson and Beye, Martin and Schreck, Simon and Gruebel, S. and Scholz, Mirko and Nordlund, Dennis and Zhang, Wenkai and Hartsock, Robert W. and Schlotter, William F. and Turner, Joshua J. and Kennedy, Brian and Hennies, Franz and de Groot, Frank M. F. and Gaffney, Kelly J. and Techert, Simone and Odelius, Michael and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {Orbital-specific mapping of the ligand exchange dynamics of Fe(CO)(5) in solution}, series = {Nature : the international weekly journal of science}, volume = {520}, journal = {Nature : the international weekly journal of science}, number = {7545}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {0028-0836}, doi = {10.1038/nature14296}, pages = {78 -- 81}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Transition-metal complexes have long attracted interest for fundamental chemical reactivity studies and possible use in solar energy conversion(1,2). Electronic excitation, ligand loss from the metal centre, or a combination of both, creates changes in charge and spin density at the metal site(3-11) that need to be controlled to optimize complexes for photocatalytic hydrogen production(8) and selective carbon-hydrogen bond activation(9-11). An understanding at the molecular level of how transition-metal complexes catalyse reactions, and in particular of the role of the short-lived and reactive intermediate states involved, will be critical for such optimization. However, suitable methods for detailed characterization of electronic excited states have been lacking. Here we show, with the use of X-ray laser-based femtosecond-resolution spectroscopy and advanced quantum chemical theory to probe the reaction dynamics of the benchmark transition-metal complex Fe(CO)(5) in solution, that the photo-induced removal of CO generates the 16-electron Fe(CO)(4) species, a homogeneous catalyst(12,13) with an electron deficiency at the Fe centre(14,15), in a hitherto unreported excited singlet state that either converts to the triplet ground state or combines with a CO or solvent molecule to regenerate a penta-coordinated Fe species on a sub-picosecond timescale. This finding, which resolves the debate about the relative importance of different spin channels in the photochemistry of Fe(CO)(5) (refs 4, 16-20), was made possible by the ability of femtosecond X-ray spectroscopy to probe frontier-orbital interactions with atom specificity. We expect the method to be broadly applicable in the chemical sciences, and to complement approaches that probe structural dynamics in ultrafast processes.}, language = {en} }