Refine
Has Fulltext
- no (3)
Document Type
- Article (3) (remove)
Language
- English (3)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (3)
Institute
Symmetry and its breaking crucially define the chemical properties of molecules and their functionality. Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering is a local electronic structure probe reporting on molecular symmetry and its dynamical breaking within the femtosecond scattering duration. Here, we study pyrimidine, a system from the C-2v point group, in an aqueous solution environment, using scattering though its 2a(2) resonance. Despite the absence of clean parity selection rules for decay transitions from in-plane orbitals, scattering channels including decay from the 7b(2) and 11a(1) orbitals with nitrogen lone pair character are a direct probe for molecular symmetry. Computed spectra of explicitly solvated molecules sampled from a molecular dynamics simulation are combined with the results of a quantum dynamical description of the X-ray scattering process. We observe dominant signatures of core-excited Jahn-Teller induced symmetry breaking for resonant excitation. Solvent contributions are separable by shortening of the effective scattering duration through excitation energy detuning.
The discovery of ultrafast X-ray induced optical reflectivity changes enabled the development of X-ray/optical cross correlation techniques at X-ray free electron lasers worldwide. We have now linked through experiment and theory the fundamental excitation and relaxation steps with the transient optical properties in finite solid samples. Therefore, we gain a thorough interpretation and an optimized detection scheme of X-ray induced changes to the refractive index and the X-ray/optical cross correlation response. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
R-Group stabilization in methylated formamides observed by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering
(2022)
The inherent stability of methylated formamides is traced to a stabilization of the deep-lying sigma-framework by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at the nitrogen K-edge. Charge transfer from the amide nitrogen to the methyl groups underlie this stabilization mechanism that leaves the aldehyde group essentially unaltered and explains the stability of secondary and tertiary amides.