@article{LeitnerJosefssonMazzaetal.2018, author = {Leitner, T. and Josefsson, Ida and Mazza, T. and Miedema, Piter S. and Schr{\"o}der, H. and Beye, Martin and Kunnus, Kristjan and Schreck, S. and D{\"u}sterer, Stefan and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Meyer, M. and Odelius, Michael and Wernet, Philippe}, title = {Time-resolved electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis of photodissociation}, series = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr}, volume = {149}, journal = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr}, number = {4}, publisher = {American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville}, issn = {0021-9606}, doi = {10.1063/1.5035149}, pages = {12}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The prototypical photoinduced dissociation of Fe(CO)(5) in the gas phase is used to test time-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for studying photochemical reactions. Upon one-photon excitation at 266 nm, Fe(CO)(5) successively dissociates to Fe(CO)(4) and Fe(CO)(3) along a pathway where both fragments retain the singlet multiplicity of Fe(CO)(5). The x-ray free-electron laser FLASH is used to probe the reaction intermediates Fe(CO)(4) and Fe(CO)(3) with time-resolved valence and core-level photoelectron spectroscopy, and experimental results are interpreted with ab initio quantum chemical calculations. Changes in the valence photoelectron spectra are shown to reflect changes in the valenceorbital interactions upon Fe-CO dissociation, thereby validating fundamental theoretical concepts in Fe-CO bonding. Chemical shifts of CO 3 sigma inner-valence and Fe 3 sigma core-level binding energies are shown to correlate with changes in the coordination number of the Fe center. We interpret this with coordination-dependent charge localization and core-hole screening based on calculated changes in electron densities upon core-hole creation in the final ionic states. This extends the established capabilities of steady-state electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis to time-resolved investigations. It could also serve as a benchmark for howcharge and spin density changes in molecular dissociation and excited-state dynamics are expressed in valence and core-level photoelectron spectroscopy. Published by AIP Publishing.}, language = {en} } @misc{JayNorellKunnusetal.2018, author = {Jay, Raphael J. and Norell, Jesper and Kunnus, Kristjan and Lundberg, Marcus and Gaffney, Kelly and Wernet, Philippe and Odelius, Michael and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {Dynamcis of local charge densities and metal-ligand covalency in iron complexes from femtosecond resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering}, series = {Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society}, volume = {256}, journal = {Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0065-7727}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-370051}, pages = {2}, year = {2018}, language = {en} } @article{JayEckertFondelletal.2018, author = {Jay, Raphael Martin and Eckert, Sebastian and Fondell, Mattis and Miedema, Piter S. and Norell, Jesper and Pietzsch, Annette and Quevedo, Wilson and Niskanen, Johannes and Kunnus, Kristjan and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {The nature of frontier orbitals under systematic ligand exchange in (pseudo-)octahedral Fe(II) complexes}, series = {Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies}, volume = {20}, journal = {Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies}, number = {44}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {1463-9076}, doi = {10.1039/c8cp04341h}, pages = {27745 -- 27751}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Understanding and controlling properties of transition metal complexes is a crucial step towards tailoring materials for sustainable energy applications. In a systematic approach, we use resonant inelastic X-ray scattering to study the influence of ligand substitution on the valence electronic structure around an aqueous iron(II) center. Exchanging cyanide with 2-2′-bipyridine ligands reshapes frontier orbitals in a way that reduces metal 3d charge delocalization onto the ligands. This net decrease of metal-ligand covalency results in lower metal-centered excited state energies in agreement with previously reported excited state dynamics. Furthermore, traces of solvent-effects were found indicating a varying interaction strength of the solvent with ligands of different character. Our results demonstrate how ligand exchange can be exploited to shape frontier orbitals of transition metal complexes in solution-phase chemistry; insights upon which future efforts can built when tailoring the functionality of photoactive systems for light-harvesting applications.}, language = {en} } @article{KunnusJosefssonSchrecketal.2017, author = {Kunnus, Kristjan and Josefsson, I. and Schreck, Simon Frederik and Quevedo, W. and Miedema, P. S. and Techert, S. and de Groot, F. M. F. and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Odelius, M. and Wernet, Ph.}, title = {Quantifying covalent interactions with resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering}, series = {Chemical physics letters}, volume = {669}, journal = {Chemical physics letters}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0009-2614}, doi = {10.1016/j.cplett.2016.12.046}, pages = {196 -- 201}, year = {2017}, abstract = {We analyze the effects of covalent interactions in Ni 2p3d resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra from aqueous Ni2+ ions and find that the relative RIXS intensities of ligand-to-metal charge-transfer final states with respect to the ligand-field final states reflect the covalent mixing between Ni 3d and water orbitals. Specifically, the experimental intensity ratio at the Ni L-3-edge allows to determine that the Ni 3d orbitals have on average 5.5\% of water character. We propose that 2p3d RIXS at the Ni L-3-edge can be utilized to quantify covalency in Ni complexes without the use of external references or simulations.}, language = {en} } @article{KunnusJosefssonRajkovicetal.2016, author = {Kunnus, Kristjan and Josefsson, Ida and Rajkovic, Ivan and Schreck, Simon and Quevedo, Wilson and Beye, Martin and Gr{\"u}bel, Sebastian and Scholz, Mirko and Nordlund, Dennis and Zhang, Wenkai and Hartsock, Robert W. and Gaffney, Kelly J. and Schlotter, William F. and Turner, Joshua J. and Kennedy, Brian and Hennies, Franz and Techert, Simone and Wernet, Philippe and Odelius, Michael and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {Anti-Stokes resonant x-ray Raman scattering for atom specific and excited state selective dynamics}, series = {NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS}, volume = {18}, journal = {NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {1367-2630}, doi = {10.1088/1367-2630/18/10/103011}, pages = {9}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Ultrafast electronic and structural dynamics of matter govern rate and selectivity of chemical reactions, as well as phase transitions and efficient switching in functional materials. Since x-rays determine electronic and structural properties with elemental, chemical, orbital and magnetic selectivity, short pulse x-ray sources have become central enablers of ultrafast science. Despite of these strengths, ultrafast x-rays have been poor at picking up excited state moieties from the unexcited ones. With time-resolved anti-Stokes resonant x-ray Raman scattering (AS-RXRS) performed at the LCLS, and ab initio theory we establish background free excited state selectivity in addition to the elemental, chemical, orbital and magnetic selectivity of x-rays. This unparalleled selectivity extracts low concentration excited state species along the pathway of photo induced ligand exchange of Fe(CO)(5) in ethanol. Conceptually a full theoretical treatment of all accessible insights to excited state dynamics with AS-RXRS with transform-limited x-ray pulses is given-which will be covered experimentally by upcoming transform-limited x-ray sources.}, language = {en} } @article{KunnusJosefssonRajkovicetal.2016, author = {Kunnus, Kristjan and Josefsson, I. and Rajkovic, Ivan and Schreck, Simon and Quevedo, Wilson and Beye, Martin and Weniger, C. and Gruebel, S. and Scholz, M. and Nordlund, D. and Zhang, W. and Hartsock, R. W. and Gaffney, K. J. and Schlotter, W. F. and Turner, J. J. and Kennedy, B. and Hennies, F. and de Groot, F. M. F. and Techert, S. and Odelius, Michael and Wernet, Ph. and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {Identification of the dominant photochemical pathways and mechanistic insights to the ultrafast ligand exchange of Fe(CO)(5) to Fe(CO)(4)EtOH}, series = {Structural dynamics}, volume = {3}, journal = {Structural dynamics}, publisher = {American Institute of Physics}, address = {Washington}, issn = {2329-7778}, doi = {10.1063/1.4941602}, pages = {16}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We utilized femtosecond time-resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and ab initio theory to study the transient electronic structure and the photoinduced molecular dynamics of a model metal carbonyl photocatalyst Fe(CO)(5) in ethanol solution. We propose mechanistic explanation for the parallel ultrafast intra-molecular spin crossover and ligation of the Fe(CO)(4) which are observed following a charge transfer photoexcitation of Fe(CO)(5) as reported in our previous study [ Wernet et al., Nature 520, 78 (2015)]. We find that branching of the reaction pathway likely happens in the (1)A(1) state of Fe(CO)(4). A sub-picosecond time constant of the spin crossover from B-1(2) to B-3(2) is rationalized by the proposed B-1(2) -> (1)A(1) -> B-3(2) mechanism. Ultrafast ligation of the B-1(2) Fe(CO)(4) state is significantly faster than the spin-forbidden and diffusion limited ligation process occurring from the B-3(2) Fe(CO)(4) ground state that has been observed in the previous studies. We propose that the ultrafast ligation occurs via B-1(2) -> (1)A(1) -> (1)A'Fe(CO)(4)EtOH pathway and the time scale of the (1)A(1) Fe(CO)(4) state ligation is governed by the solute-solvent collision frequency. Our study emphasizes the importance of understanding the interaction of molecular excited states with the surrounding environment to explain the relaxation pathways of photoexcited metal carbonyls in solution. (C) 2016 Author(s).}, language = {en} } @article{KunnusZhangDelceyetal.2016, author = {Kunnus, Kristjan and Zhang, Wenkai and Delcey, Mickael G. and Pinjari, Rahul V. and Miedema, Piter S. and Schreck, Simon and Quevedo, Wilson and Schr{\"o}der, Henning and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Gaffney, Kelly J. and Lundberg, Marcus and Odelius, Michael and Wernet, Philippe}, title = {Viewing the Valence Electronic Structure of Ferric and Ferrous Hexacyanide in Solution from the Fe and Cyanide Perspectives}, series = {The journal of physical chemistry : B, Condensed matter, materials, surfaces, interfaces \& biophysical chemistry}, volume = {120}, journal = {The journal of physical chemistry : B, Condensed matter, materials, surfaces, interfaces \& biophysical chemistry}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {1520-6106}, doi = {10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b04751}, pages = {7182 -- 7194}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The valence-excited states of ferric and ferrous hexacyanide ions in aqueous solution were mapped by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Fe L-2,L-3 and N K edges. Probing of both the central Fe and the ligand N atoms enabled identification of the metal-and ligand-centered excited states, as well as ligand-to-metal and metal-to-ligand charge-transfer excited states. Ab initio calculations utilizing the RASPT2 method were used to simulate the Fe L-2,L-3-edge RIXS spectra and enabled quantification of the covalencies of both occupied and empty orbitals of pi and sigma symmetry. We found that pi back-donation in the ferric complex is smaller than that in the ferrous complex. This is evidenced by the relative amounts of Fe 3d character in the nominally 2 pi CN- molecular orbital of 7\% and 9\% in ferric and ferrous hexacyanide, respectively. Utilizing the direct sensitivity of Fe L-3-edge RIXS to the Fe 3d character in the occupied molecular orbitals, we also found that the donation interactions are dominated by sigma bonding. The latter was found to be stronger in the ferric complex, with an Fe 3d contribution to the nominally 5 sigma CN- molecular orbitals of 29\% compared to 20\% in the ferrous complex. These results are consistent with the notion that a higher charge at the central metal atom increases donation and decreases back-donation.}, 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} } @article{KunnusSchreckFoehlisch2015, author = {Kunnus, Kristjan and Schreck, Simon and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {Free-electron laser based resonant inelastic X-ray scattering on molecules and liquids}, series = {Journal of electron spectroscopy and related phenomena : the international journal on theoretical and experimental aspects of electron spectroscopy}, volume = {204}, journal = {Journal of electron spectroscopy and related phenomena : the international journal on theoretical and experimental aspects of electron spectroscopy}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0368-2048}, doi = {10.1016/j.elspec.2015.08.012}, pages = {345 -- 355}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The unprecedented beam properties of free-electron laser based X-ray sources enable novel resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) experiments. Femtosecond time-resolved RIXS can be used to follow charge, spin and structural dynamics of dilute solute molecules in solution. Ultrashort X-ray pulses allow probing of highly radiation sensitive states of matter such as the metastable phase of supercooled liquid water. Nonlinear X-ray probes like amplified spontaneous emission and stimulated resonant X-ray scattering provide an enhanced selectivity and sensitivity as well as a path to control radiation damage and increase the photon yields in RIXS experiments. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{SchreckPietzschKunnusetal.2014, author = {Schreck, Simon and Pietzsch, Annette and Kunnus, Kristjan and Kennedy, Brian and Quevedo, Wilson and Miedema, Piter S. and Wernet, Philippe and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {Dynamics of the OH group and the electronic structure of liquid alcohols}, series = {Structural dynamics}, volume = {1}, journal = {Structural dynamics}, number = {5}, publisher = {American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville}, issn = {2329-7778}, doi = {10.1063/1.4897981}, pages = {14}, year = {2014}, abstract = {In resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering (RIXS) from molecular and liquid systems, the interplay of ground state structural and core-excited state dynamical contributions leads to complex spectral shapes that partially allow for ambiguous interpretations. In this work, we dissect these contributions in oxygen K-edge RIXS from liquid alcohols. We use the scattering into the electronic ground state as an accurate measure of nuclear dynamics in the intermediate core-excited state of the RIXS process. We determine the characteristic time in the core-excited state until nuclear dynamics give a measurable contribution to the RIXS spectral profiles to tau(dyn) = 1.2 +/- 0.8 fs. By detuning the excitation energy below the absorption resonance we reduce the effective scattering time below sdyn, and hence suppress these dynamical contributions to a minimum. From the corresponding RIXS spectra of liquid methanol, we retrieve the "dynamic-free" density of states and find that it is described solely by the electronic states of the free methanol molecule. From this and from the comparison of normal and deuterated methanol, we conclude that the split peak structure found in the lone-pair emission region at non-resonant excitation originates from dynamics in the O-H bond in the core-excited state. We find no evidence that this split peak feature is a signature of distinct ground state structural complexes in liquid methanol. However, we demonstrate how changes in the hydrogen bond coordination within the series of linear alcohols from methanol to hexanol affect the split peak structure in the liquid alcohols. (C) 2014 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.}, language = {en} }