Search

Intermolecular Coulombic decay transfers excess energy to neighbouring molecules, which then lose a low-energy (and, hence, genotoxic) electron; here the process is experimentally confirmed to be site-selective and highly efficient, possibly enabling more targeted radiation therapy.

Helium is an atom of great scientific interest, yet much debate exists surrounding the shape its molecules form. Here Voigtsberger et al. present experimental results imaging the wavefuction of ⁴He₃ and ³He₄He₂ trimer systems, which suggest that ⁴He₃ is a random cloud while ³He₄He₂is a quantum halo state.

Core ionization of ions in solution leads to decay processes involving interaction with the environment. Here, the authors report a non-local X-ray emission process in core-ionized Na⁺ and Mg²⁺ that can be used to probe the ions’ solvation shells.

The Authors demonstrate imaging of separation and formation of chemical bonds during an elimination reaction by means of intense femtosecond X-rays pulses.

The complex equilibria of sulfur compounds at the liquid-vapor interface play key roles in atmospheric processes. Here, using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and molecular dynamics simulations the authors determining pKa values and tautomer ratios at the air-vapor interface in a liquid microjet.

Ultrafast breaking of the molecular symmetry is a key process in photochemistry. Here the authors show direct observation during internal conversion of a heterocyclic molecule using Coulomb explosion imaging supported by simulations.

The authors investigate the X-ray-induced electron dynamics, on the sub-femtosecond timescale, of hydrated Na⁺, Mg²⁺, and Al³⁺ ions providing insights into the ultrafast charge-transfer processes in aqueous environments.

Measuring photoionization time delays is an interesting and challenging topic. Here the authors demonstrate a method to measure the photoionization time delays using inner-shell ionization of CO molecule.

X-ray triggered non-local processes, such as Intermolecular Coulombic Decay, are shown here to selectively probe solvation-shell molecules in solution and provide new information on their electronic structure and on ion-pair formation.

Electron-electron correlation is a complex and interesting phenomenon that occurs in multi-electron systems. Here, the authors demonstrate the imaging of the correlated two-electron wave function in hydrogen molecule using the coincident detection of the electron and proton after the photoionization.

Visualizing the structural dynamics of isolated molecules would help to understand chemical reactions, but this is difficult for complex structures. Intense femtosecond X-ray pulses allow the full imaging of exploding photoionized molecules, in this case, with eleven atoms.

Radiation damage in biology is largely mediated by radicals and low-energy electrons formed by water ionization and extensive, localized water ionization can be caused by ultrafast processes following the core-level ionization of hydrated metal ions. Now it has been shown that, for Al³⁺ ions, relaxation occurs via sequential solute–solvent electron transfer-mediated decay.

Weyl semimetals exhibit Berry flux monopoles in momentum-space, but direct experimental evidence has remained elusive. Here, the authors reveal topologically non-trivial winding of the orbital-angular-momentum at the Weyl nodes and a chirality-dependent spin-angular-momentum of the Weyl bands, as a direct signature of the Berry flux monopoles in TaAs.