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Metal carbonyl complexes show photoreactivity interesting for catalytic and biological applications. Here the authors capture the structural dynamics of the photodissociation of iron pentacarbonyl in real space and time using ultrafast X-ray scattering.

Time-resolved measurements of the X-ray photoemission delay of core-level electrons using attosecond soft X-ray pulses from a free-electron laser can be used to determine the complex correlated dynamics of photoionization.

Researchers have demonstrated the generation and control of subfemtosecond pulse pairs from a two-colour X-ray free-electron laser and conducted pump–probe experiments in core-ionized molecules.

Understanding transformations of non-equilibrium materials is a key open scientific question. Here the pathway by which different polar supertextures undergo dynamical correlations and collectively transform into a metastable supercrystal state is revealed experimentally and theoretically over seven orders of magnitude timescale.

The generation of ultrashort X-ray pulses with a peak power exceeding 100 GW offers new opportunities for studying electron dynamics with nonlinear spectroscopy and single-particle imaging.

Terawatt-scale, sub-femtosecond, soft X-ray pulses have been demonstrated at the Linac Coherent Light Source using a superradiant cascaded amplification approach.

Solvent plays a critical role in electron-transfer reactions, but short-range solvation dynamics are challenging to observe. Now, femtosecond X-ray solution scattering has been used to directly monitor the reorganization of water upon ultrafast intramolecular electron transfer in a bimetallic complex. Coherent motions of the first-shell water molecules are observed, arising from changes in solute–solvent hydrogen bonding.

High-speed spectroscopy confirms predictions of the emission of terahertz radiation when a laser-induced acoustic wave passes across the interface between two piezoelectric materials.

Reliably identifying transient intermediates is crucial to elucidate chemical reaction mechanisms. Here, the authors use femtosecond Fe Kβ main line and valence-to-core x-ray emission spectroscopy to characterize a short-lived intermediate of the aqueous ferricyanide photo-aquation reaction.

Some X-ray free-electron laser facilities are pushing towards sub-10 fs pulses, making it desirable to reduce errors in X-ray/optical delay measurements to the 1 fs level. Researchers have now demonstrated X-ray measurements with a temporal resolution shorter than 1 fs, opening up new possibilities for time-resolved X-ray experiments.

Coherent control joins the nonlinear optical toolbox for free-electron lasers and demonstrates phase control on the attosecond scale.

Localized chemical events such as the breakage of a bond between a protein and a ligand may trigger a global protein conformational change. Here, the authors use an X-ray free-electron laser to track the motion of myoglobin in response to photoinduced ligand release, and observe a picosecond proteinquake.

Proton migration in the acetylene cation is commonly used as a model to study isomerisation dynamics. Here, the authors use X-ray pump-probe experiments to study this process, and show that isomerization occurs significantly faster than expected—within the first 12 femtoseconds following core ionization.

Ultrafast nonadiabatic chemical dynamics during molecular photo-transformations remain challenging to describe since electronic/nuclear configurations are coupled. Here the authors use time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy to probe the light-induced spin-state trapping dynamics of [Fe(bpy)₃]²⁺beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.

Cyanide-bridged CoFe coordination networks exhibit photomagnetism because of coupled charge-transfer and spin transition. Now, femtosecond X-ray and optical absorption spectroscopies have enabled the electronic and structural dynamics of this light-induced process to be disentangled and show that it is the spin transition on the cobalt atom, occurring within ~50 fs, that induces the Fe-to-Co charge-transfer within ~200 fs.

The dissociation mechanism of the heme axial ligand in heme proteins is not yet fully understood. The authors investigate the photodissociation dynamics of the bond between heme Fe and methionine S in ferrous cytochrome c using femtosecond time-resolved X-ray solution scattering and X-ray emission spectroscopy, simultaneously tracking electronic and nuclear structure changes.

Photoinduced non-adiabatic intramolecular processes have important applications but their mechanisms are challenging to explore. Here the authors detect and assign vibrational wavepacket dynamics in a Fe carbene complex by ultrafast X-ray emission spectroscopy and X-ray scattering, resolving nuclear and electronic motion.

A robust acoustic droplet ejection–drop-on-tape method delivers samples to an X-ray free-electron laser source for combined serial femtosecond crystallography and X-ray emission spectroscopy analysis, providing detailed insights into macromolecular reaction dynamics.

Electron–phonon coupling in a monolayer WSe₂ on a substrate is investigated by femtosecond surface X-ray scattering. Counterintuitively, the absorbed optical photon energy is dominantly coupled to the in-plane lattice vibrations within 1 ps.

Laser ablation is a phenomenon where the fundamental research directly intersects with practical relevance for industrial applications, yet probing the highly nonequilibrium phase decomposition triggered by laser excitation is still a challenge. This study provides unique insights into the dynamics of nanoscale phase decomposition in laser ablation of thin gold films by combining time-resolved femtosecond X-ray probing with large-scale atomistic modeling.

The structures of three intermediate states of photosystem II, which is crucial for photosynthesis, have been solved at room temperature, shedding new light on this process.

Charge and spin density waves describe periodic distortions to the electronic structure of a given system and ultrafast laser techniques can provide unique mechanistic insight into their underling physics. Here, the authors use femtosecond laser pulses to understand the role phonon dynamics play in the formation of a spin density wave in Cr thin films.