First light at the LCLS x-ray free electron laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory marked the beginning of hard x-ray laser science. With pulse energies in excess of a milliJoule and pulse durations as short as 5 femtoseconds in duration, the LCLS provides a novel and potentially transformative approach for investigating chemical dynamics in complex systems.Understanding the coupled evolution of electrons and nuclei during chemical transformations remains a central and vexing challenge. Ultrafast optical electronic spectroscopy can monitor both the nuclear and the electronic evolution that occurs during a chemical reaction, but this joint sensitivity often impedes the robust interpretation of experimental measurement. The LCLS provides the opportunity to simultaneously measure electronic dynamics with x-ray fluorescence and nuclear dynamics with elastic x-ray scattering, providing a robust means for disentangling the coupled motions of electrons and nuclei during excited state internal conversion and intersystem crossing.

Ultrafast X-ray laser studies of coupled electronic and nuclear relaxation dynamics in coordination chemistry

245th National Meeting (2013)

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