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Steady-state and picosecond time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy is used to study the ground and lowest triplet states of [ReX(CO)(3)(bpy)](n+), X = Etpy (n = 1), Cl, or Br (n = 0). We demonstrate that the transient spectra at both the Re L(3)- and Br K-edges show the emergence of a pre-edge feature, absent in the ground-state spectrum, which is associated with the electron hole created in the highest occupied molecular orbital following photoexcitation. Importantly, these features have the same dynamics, confirming previous predictions that the low-lying excited states of these complexes involve a two-center charge transfer from both the Re and the ligand, X. We also demonstrate that the DFT optimized ground and excited structures allow us to reproduce the experimental XANES and EXAFS spectra. The ground-state structural refinement shows that the Br atom contributes very little to the latter, whereas the Re-C-O scattering paths are dominant due to the so-called focusing effect. For the excited-state spectrum, the Re-X bond undergoes one of the largest changes but still remains a weak contribution to the photoinduced changes of the EXAFS spectrum.

X-ray absorption spectroscopy is a powerful probe of molecular structure, but it has previously been too slow to track the earliest dynamics after photoexcitation. We investigated the ultrafast formation of the lowest quintet state of aqueous iron(II) tris(bipyridine) upon excitation of the singlet metal-to-ligand-charge-transfer ( 1 MLCT) state by femtosecond optical pump/x-ray probe techniques based on x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES). By recording the intensity of a characteristic XANES feature as a function of laser pump/x-ray probe time delay, we find that the quintet state is populated in about 150 femtoseconds. The quintet state is further evidenced by its full XANES spectrum recorded at a 300-femtosecond time delay. These results resolve a long-standing issue about the population mechanism of quintet states in iron(II)-based complexes, which we identify as a simple 1 MLCT→ 3 MLCT→ 5 T cascade from the initially excited state. The time scale of the 3 MLCT→ 5 T relaxation corresponds to the period of the iron-nitrogen stretch vibration.

Picosecond and femtosecond X-ray absorption spectroscopy is used to probe the changes of the solvent shell structure upon electron abstraction of aqueous iodide using an ultrashort laser pulse. The transient L-1,L-3 edge EXAFS at 50 ps time delay points to the formation of an expanded water cavity around the iodine atom, in good agreement with classical and quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. These also show that while the hydrogen atoms pointed toward iodide, they predominantly point toward the bulk solvent in the case of iodine, suggesting a hydrophobic behavior. This is further confirmed by quantum chemical (QC) calculations of I-/I-0(H2O)(n=1-4) clusters. The L-1 edge sub-picosecond spectra point to the existence of a transient species that is not present at SO ps. The QC calculations and the QM/MM MD simulations identify this transient species as an I-0(OH2) complex inside the cavity. The simulations show that upon electron abstraction most of the water molecules move away from iodine, while one comes closer to form the complex that lives for 3-4 Ps. This time is governed by the reorganization of the main solvation shell, basically the time it takes for the water molecules to reform an H-bond network Only then is the interaction with the solvation shell strong enough to pull the water molecule of the complex toward the bulk solvent. Overall, much of the behavior at early times is determined by the reorientational dynamics of water molecules and the formation of a complete network of hydrogen bonded molecules in the first solvation shell.

Solvation dynamics aims to incorporate the active role of the solvent in chemical and biochemical reactions and its relevance stems from the fact that most of chemistry and biology takes place in liquids. A full description of the electronic and molecular changes associated with these reactions includes time-resolved structural information, which can be obtained using transient X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

We investigated the generation and propagation of coherent phonons in an oxide superlattice of SrRuO3and SrTiO3. The rich dynamics resulted in drastic modulations of various Bragg peaks on a 1-ps timescale.

The implementation of techniques such as X-ray and electron diffraction, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy in the ultrashort time domain has added the atomic scale structural information to the atomic scale temporal information already available from ultrafast laser spectroscopy.1,2 We will present different examples where the combination of optical and hard X-ray spectroscopies allowed us to obtain a complete picture of the dynamics of molecular processes in solutions. We will discuss the following examples: i) the photocycle of spin cross over Fe(II)-based molecular complexes3,4; ii) the dynamics of electronic solvation1,5; iii) bond formation in dinuclear complexes6. We will also discuss the ongoing extension of such studies to the soft X-ray domain.

We experimentally demonstrate efficient switching of the hard x-ray Bragg reflectivity of a SrRuO3 /SrTiO3 superlattice by optical excitation of large-amplitude coherent acoustic superlattice phonons. The rocking curve changes drastically on a 1 ps timescale. The (0 0 116) reflection is almost extinguished (Delta R/R-0=-0.91), while the (0 0 118) reflection increases by more than an order of magnitude (Delta R/R-0=24.1). The change of the x-ray structure factor depends nonlinearly on the phonon amplitude, allowing manipulation of the x-ray response on a timescale considerably shorter than the phonon period. Numerical simulations for a superlattice with slightly changed geometry and realistic parameters predict a switching-contrast ratio Delta R/R-0 of 700 with high reflectivity. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3402773]

We present a novel analysis of time-resolved extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectra based on the fitting of the experimental transients obtained from optical pump/x-ray probe experiments. We apply it to the analysis of picosecond EXAFS data on aqueous [FeII (bpy)3] 2+, which undergoes a light induced conversion from its low-spin (LS) ground state to the short-lived (τ≈650 ps) excited high-spin (HS) state. A series of EXAFS spectra were simulated for a collection of possible HS structures from which the ground state fit spectrum was subtracted to generate transient difference absorption (TA) spectra. These are then compared with the experimental TA spectrum using a least-squares statistical analysis to derive the structural change. This approach reduces the number of required parameters by cancellation in the differences. It also delivers a unique solution for both the fractional population and the extracted excited state structure. We thus obtain a value of the Fe-N bond elongation in the HS state with subpicometer precision (0.203±0.008 Å). © 2009 American Institute of Physics., This work was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation via Contract Nos. 620–066145, 200021–107956, PP002–110464, 200020–116023, 200021–105239, and 200020-116533.

We present ultrafast x-ray absorption studies of photoexcited aqueous iron trisbipyridine with 160 fs and with 70 ps temporal resolution to monitor the structural evolution in this spin-crossover complex.

The L-3 X-ray absorption spectrum of aqueous iodide is reported, and its EXAFS is compared to theoretical spectra reconstructed from the radial distribution function of the iodide hydration obtained from classical, hybrid Quantum Mechanics Molecular Mechanics, (QM/MM) and full quantum (density functional theory, DFT) molecular dynamics simulations. Since EXAFS is mainly sensitive to short distances around the iodide ion, it is a direct probe of the local solvation structure. The comparison shows that QM/MM simulations deliver a satisfactory description of the EXAFS signal, while nonpolarizable classical simulations are somewhat less satisfactory and DFT-based simulations perform poorly. We also identify a weak anisotropy of the water solvation shell around iodide, which may be of importance in electron photoejection experiments. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding the initial steps during ultrafast molecular reactions involving large spin state changes is a vital goal in structural dynamics research. These involve knowledge of the geometric structure of the system. Ultrafast X-ray absorption spectroscopy with 50-100 picosecond time resolution establishes the geometric structure of the short-lived (tau = 0.6 ns) high spin state. Here we focus on time-resolved X-ray absorption studies with 160-200 fs temporal resolution to monitor the structural evolution in this spin-conversion process.