TY - JOUR A1 - Beye, Martin A1 - Öberg, Henrik A1 - Xin, Hongliang A1 - Dakovski, Georgi L. A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander A1 - Gladh, Jorgen A1 - Hantschmann, Markus A1 - Hieke, Florian A1 - Kaya, Sarp A1 - Kühn, Danilo A1 - LaRue, Jerry A1 - Mercurio, Giuseppe A1 - Minitti, Michael P. A1 - Mitra, Ankush A1 - Moeller, Stefan P. A1 - Ng, May Ling A1 - Nilsson, Anders A1 - Nordlund, Dennis A1 - Norskov, Jens A1 - Öström, Henrik A1 - Ogasawara, Hirohito A1 - Persson, Mats A1 - Schlotter, William F. A1 - Sellberg, Jonas A. A1 - Wolf, Martin A1 - Abild-Pedersen, Frank A1 - Pettersson, Lars G. M. A1 - Wurth, Wilfried T1 - Chemical Bond Activation Observed with an X-ray Laser JF - The journal of physical chemistry letters N2 - The concept of bonding and antibonding orbitals is fundamental in chemistry. The population of those orbitals and the energetic difference between the two reflect the strength of the bonding interaction. Weakening the bond is expected to reduce this energetic splitting, but the transient character of bond-activation has so far prohibited direct experimental access. Here we apply time-resolved soft X-ray spectroscopy at a free electron laser to directly observe the decreased bonding antibonding splitting following bond-activation using an ultrashort optical laser pulse. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b01543 SN - 1948-7185 VL - 7 SP - 3647 EP - 3651 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jay, Raphael M. A1 - Norell, Jesper A1 - Eckert, Sebastian A1 - Hantschmann, Markus A1 - Beye, Martin A1 - Kennedy, Brian A1 - Quevedo, Wilson A1 - Schlotter, William F. A1 - Dakovski, Georgi L. A1 - Minitti, Michael P. A1 - Hoffmann, Matthias C. A1 - Mitra, Ankush A1 - Moeller, Stefan P. A1 - Nordlund, Dennis A1 - Zhang, Wenkai A1 - Liang, Huiyang W. A1 - Kunnus, Kristian A1 - Kubicek, Katharina A1 - Techert, Simone A. A1 - Lundberg, Marcus A1 - Wernet, Philippe A1 - Gaffney, Kelly A1 - Odelius, Michael A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander T1 - Disentangling Transient Charge Density and Metal-Ligand Covalency in Photoexcited Ferricyanide with Femtosecond Resonant Inelastic Soft X-ray Scattering JF - The journal of physical chemistry letters N2 - Soft X-ray spectroscopies are ideal probes of the local valence electronic structure of photocatalytically active metal sites. Here, we apply the selectivity of time resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at the iron L-edge to the transient charge distribution of an optically excited charge-transfer state in aqueous ferricyanide. Through comparison to steady-state spectra and quantum chemical calculations, the coupled effects of valence-shell closing and ligand-hole creation are experimentally and theoretically disentangled and described in terms of orbital occupancy, metal-ligand covalency, and ligand field splitting, thereby extending established steady-state concepts to the excited-state domain. pi-Back-donation is found to be mainly determined by the metal site occupation, whereas the ligand hole instead influences sigma-donation. Our results demonstrate how ultrafast resonant inelastic X-ray scattering can help characterize local charge distributions around catalytic metal centers in short-lived charge-transfer excited states, as a step toward future rationalization and tailoring of photocatalytic capabilities of transition-metal complexes. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b01429 SN - 1948-7185 VL - 9 IS - 12 SP - 3538 EP - 3543 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER -