TY - THES A1 - Büchner, Robby T1 - Understanding local electronic structure variations in bio-inspired aromatic molecules T1 - Erkenntnisse über lokale Variationen der elektronischen Struktur in biologisch inspirierten aromatischen Molekülen N2 - In this thesis, the dependencies of charge localization and itinerance in two classes of aromatic molecules are accessed: pyridones and porphyrins. The focus lies on the effects of isomerism, complexation, solvation, and optical excitation, which are concomitant with different crucial biological applications of specific members of these groups of compounds. Several porphyrins play key roles in the metabolism of plants and animals. The nucleobases, which store the genetic information in the DNA and RNA are pyridone derivatives. Additionally, a number of vitamins are based on these two groups of substances. This thesis aims to answer the question of how the electronic structure of these classes of molecules is modified, enabling the versatile natural functionality. The resulting insights into the effect of constitutional and external factors are expected to facilitate the design of new processes for medicine, light-harvesting, catalysis, and environmental remediation. The common denominator of pyridones and porphyrins is their aromatic character. As aromaticity was an early-on topic in chemical physics, the overview of relevant theoretical models in this work also mirrors the development of this scientific field in the 20th century. The spectroscopic investigation of these compounds has long been centered on their global, optical transition between frontier orbitals. The utilization and advancement of X-ray spectroscopic methods characterizing the local electronic structure of molecular samples form the core of this thesis. The element selectivity of the near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) is employed to probe the unoccupied density of states at the nitrogen site, which is key for the chemical reactivity of pyridones and porphyrins. The results contribute to the growing database of NEXAFS features and their interpretation, e.g., by advancing the debate on the porphyrin N K-edge through systematic experimental and theoretical arguments. Further, a state-of-the-art laser pump – NEXAFS probe scheme is used to characterize the relaxation pathway of a photoexcited porphyrin on the atomic level. Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) provides complementary results by accessing the highest occupied valence levels including symmetry information. It is shown that RIXS is an effective experimental tool to gain detailed information on charge densities of individual species in tautomeric mixtures. Additionally, the hRIXS and METRIXS high-resolution RIXS spectrometers, which have been in part commissioned in the course of this thesis, will gain access to the ultra-fast and thermal chemistry of pyridones, porphyrins, and many other compounds. With respect to both classes of bio-inspired aromatic molecules, this thesis establishes that even though pyridones and porphyrins differ largely by their optical absorption bands and hydrogen bonding abilities, they all share a global stabilization of local constitutional changes and relevant external perturbation. It is because of this wide-ranging response that pyridones and porphyrins can be applied in a manifold of biological and technical processes. N2 - In dieser Arbeit werden die Abhängigkeiten von Ladungslokalisierung und -wanderung in zwei Klassen von aromatischen Molekülen untersucht: Pyridone und Porphyrine. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf den Auswirkungen von Isomerie, Komplexierung, Lösung (in Wasser) und optischer Anregung, die mit verschiedenen entscheidenden biologischen Anwendungen spezifischer Mitglieder dieser Gruppen von Verbindungen einhergehen. Mehrere Porphyrine spielen eine Schlüsselrolle im Stoffwechsel von Pflanzen und Tieren. Die Nukleobasen, die die genetische Information in der DNA und RNA speichern, sind Pyridonderivate. Auch mehrere Vitamine basieren auf diesen beiden Stoffgruppen. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Frage zu beantworten, wie die elektronische Struktur dieser Molekülklassen modifiziert wird, sodass die vielfältigen Funktionen in der Natur ermöglicht werden. Die sich daraus ergebenden Erkenntnisse über die Wirkung konstitutioneller und externer Einflussfaktoren ermöglichen die Entwicklung neuer Verfahren in der Medizin, Katalyse, Solar- und Umwelttechnik. Die Gemeinsamkeit von Pyridonen und Porphyrinen ist ihr aromatischer Charakter. Da Aromatizität von Beginn der chemischen Physik an thematisiert wurde, spiegelt der Überblick relevanter theoretischer Modelle in dieser Arbeit auch die Entwicklung dieses Wissenschaftsgebiets im 20. Jahrhundert wieder. Die spektroskopische Untersuchung dieser Verbindungen konzentrierte sich lange Zeit auf die globalen, optischen Übergänge zwischen den Grenzorbitalen. Die Anwendung und Weiterentwicklung röntgenspektroskopischer Methoden zur Charakterisierung der lokalen elektronischen Struktur von molekularen Proben bilden den Kern dieser Arbeit. Die Elementselektivität der Röntgen-Nahkanten-Absorptions-Spektroskopie (NEXAFS) wird genutzt, um die unbesetzte Zustandsdichte an den Stickstoffatomen zu untersuchen, welche für die chemische Reaktivität von Pyridonen und Porphyrinen verantwortlich sind. Die Ergebnisse tragen zum wachsenden Bestand von NEXAFS-Spektren und ihrer Interpretation bei, z.B. indem sie die Debatte über die N K-Kante von Porphyrinen durch systematische experimentelle und theoretische Argumente voranbringen. Zudem wird ein modernes Laser-Pump – NEXAFS-Probe System verwendet, um den Relaxationsprozess eines photoangeregten Porphyrins auf atomarer Ebene zu charakterisieren. Die resonante inelastische Röntgenstreuung (RIXS) liefert komplementäre Ergebnisse, indem sie die höchsten besetzten Valenzniveaus einschließlich Symmetrieinformationen zugänglich macht. Es wird gezeigt, dass RIXS eine effektive experimentelle Methode ist, um detaillierte Informationen über die Ladungsdichten einzelner Tautomere in einem Gemisch zu erhalten. Zudem werden es die hochauflösenden RIXS-Spektrometer hRIXS und METRIXS, die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit mit in Betrieb genommen wurden, erlauben, Informationen zur ultraschnellen und thermischen Chemie von Pyridonen, Porphyrinen und vielen anderen Verbindungen zu gewinnen. Im Hinblick auf beide Klassen biologisch inspirierter, aromatischer Moleküle wird in dieser Arbeit gezeigt, dass sich Pyridone und Porphyrine zwar durch ihre optischen Absorptionsbanden und ihre Fähigkeit zu Wasserstoffbrückenbindungen unterscheiden, aber alle Verbindungen eine globale Stabilisierung lokaler Konstitutionsänderungen und relevanter äußerer Einflüsse aufweisen. Aufgrund dieser weitreichenden Anpassung können Pyridone und Porphyrine in einer Vielzahl von biologischen und technischen Prozessen eingesetzt werden. KW - NEXAFS KW - RIXS KW - X-ray spectroscopy KW - Aromaticity KW - Porphyrins KW - Pyridones KW - Röntgenspektroskopie KW - Aromatizität KW - Porphyrine KW - Pyridone KW - NEXAFS KW - RIXS Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-553192 ER - TY - THES A1 - Born, Artur T1 - Electronic structure, quasi-particle interaction and relaxation in 3d-elements from X-ray spectroscopy N2 - Any physical system can be described on the level of interacting particles, thus it is of fundamental importance to improve the scientific understanding of interacting many-body systems. This thesis experimentally addresses specific quasi-particle interactions, namely interactions be- tween electrons and between electrons and phonons. It describes the consequential effects of those processes on the electronic structure and the core-hole relaxation pathways in 3d metals. Despite the great amount of experimental and theoretical studies of these interactions and their impact on the behavior of solid-state matter, there are still open questions concerning the cor- responding physical, chemical and mechanical properties of solid-state matter. Especially, the study of 3d metals and their compounds is a great experimental challenge, since those exhibit a variety of spectral features originating from many-body effects such as multiplet splitting, shake up/off satellites, vibrationally excited states or more complex effects like superconductivity and ultrafast demagnetization. In X-ray spectroscopy, these effects often produce overlapping fea- tures, complicating the analysis and limiting the understanding. In this thesis, to overcome the limitations set by conventional X-ray spectroscopy, two different experimental approaches were successfully refined, namely Auger electron photoelectron coincidence spectroscopy (APECS) and temperature-dependent X-ray emission spectroscopy (tXES), which enabled the separation of different core-hole relaxation pathways and the isolation of the impact of specific many-body interactions in the experimental spectra. APECS was utilized at the new Coincidence electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (Co- ESCA) station at BESSY II to study the core-hole decay and electron-correlation effects in single- crystal Ni, Cu and Co. The observation of photoelectrons in coincidence with Auger electrons allows for the separation of the initial and final state effects in the Auger electron spectra. The results show that a Cu LV V Auger spectrum can be represented by broadened atomic multiplets confirming the localized nature of the intermediate core-hole states. In contrast, the Co LV V Auger spectrum is band-like and can be represented by the self-convolution of the valence band. Ni behaves mixed, localized and itinerant. Thus, the Ni Auger spectrum can only be represented by a mixture of atomic multiplet peaks and the self-convoluted valence band. In the case of Ni, the LV V Auger electrons in coincidence with the 6 eV satellite photoelectrons were also stud- ied. Utilizing the core-hole clock method, the lifetime of the localized double-hole intermediate 2 p53d9 states of 1.8 fs could be determined. However, a fraction of these states delocalizes before the Auger decay contributing to the main peak. A similar delocalization was observed for the double-hole states produced by the L2L3M4,5 Coster-Kronig process. Additionally, the influence of surface oxidation on the Ni(111) 3p levels was studied with APECS. The Ni 3p PES spectrum is broad and featureless, due to overlapping many-body effects and gives little chance for exact analysis using conventional photoelectron spectroscopy. Utilizing APECS or precisely the final state selectivity of the method, the spectral width of the 3p levels could be narrowed and their positions and the spin-orbit splitting were determined. Moreover, due to the surface sensitivity of the method, the chemically shifted 3p photoelectron peaks originating from the oxidized surface and the bulk Ni were disentangled. For the study of the atomic electron-phonon spin-flip scattering in 3d metals as a spin-relaxation channel, the tXES method at the SolidFlexRIXS station was developed. The atomic spin-flip scat- tering was studied in single-crystal Ni, Cu, Co and in FeNi alloys, which show considerable dif- ferences in their behavior. The scattering rate in Ni increases with temperature, whereas the rate in Cu and Co remains constant within the measured temperature range up to 1000 K. In FeNi alloys, our results reveal that the spin-flip scattering is restricted by sublattice exchange energies J. The electron-phonon scattering driven spin-flips only appear in the case where the thermal energy ex- ceeds the exchange energy kT > J. This thresholding is an important microscopic process for the description of the sublattice dynamics in alloys, but as shown also relevant for elemental magnetic systems. Overall, the results strongly indicate that the spin-flip probability is correlated with the exchange energy, which might become an important parameter in the ultrafast demagnetization debate. Taken together, the applied experimental approaches allowed to study complex many-body effects in 3d metals. The results show that utilizing APECS enabled the distinction and clear assignment of otherwise overlapping features in AES or PES spectra of Ni, Cu, Co and NiO. This is of fundamental importance for the basic understanding of photoionization and core-hole decay processes but also for the chemical analysis in applied science. The measurement of the atomic electron-phonon spin-flip scattering rate utilizing tXES shows that the electron-phonon spin-flip scattering is a relevant atomic process for the macroscopic demagnetization process. Additionally, a temperature-dependent thresholding mechanism was discovered, which introduces an important dynamic factor into the electron-phonon spin-flip model. KW - X-ray spectroscopy KW - photoelectron spectroscopy KW - Auger electron spectroscop KW - X-ray absorption spectroscopy KW - X-ray emission spectroscopy KW - 3d metals KW - electronic structure KW - quasi-particle interaction Y1 - 2021 ER -