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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 12: Femtosecond Spectroscopy III
MO 12.2: Talk
Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 14:30–14:45, V38.03
Dynamics and structure in hydrogen bonded systems probed with resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering — •Simon Schreck1, Kristjan Kunnus1, Wilson Quevedo1, Franz Hennies2, Brian Kennedy2, Simone Techert3, Philippe Wernet1, and Alexander Föhlisch1 — 1Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin — 2MAX-lab — 3Max-Planck-Institut BPC, Göttingen
Hydrogen bonded systems are ubiquitous in nature ranging from bonding in DNA to liquid water as a solvent and the natural medium for many chemical reactions and proteins. Often the structure and function of molecules and proteins is determined by the bonding properties in these systems. On the other hand the structure and the dynamics even of the simplest hydrogen bonded systems such as water and methanol are still the subject of controversial discussions.
We used resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the O K-edge to study the dynamics and structure of liquid water and methanol. RIXS is an element specific and local probe of the valence electronic structure and hence very sensitive to the local geometric structure. Since the scattering process takes place in only a few femtoseconds (fs), RIXS is sensitive to dynamics on the fs-timescale. By detuning below the absorption resonance, the scattering-duration time can be reduced significantly and even shorter timescales can be investigated. Studying the angular anisotropy of the scattered photons gives information about the symmetry of the involved states.
The measurements were performed at the synchrotron radiation source BESSYII at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.