Ultrafast structural dynamics of photo-reactions observed by time-resolved x-ray cross-correlation analysis

Peter Vester; Ivan A Zaluzhnyy; Ruslan P Kurta; Klaus B Møller; Elisa Biasin; Kristoffer Haldrup; Martin Meedom Nielsen; Ivan A Vartanyants

doi:10.1063/1.5086374

Ultrafast structural dynamics of photo-reactions observed by time-resolved x-ray cross-correlation analysis

Struct Dyn. 2019 Mar 13;6(2):024301. doi: 10.1063/1.5086374. eCollection 2019 Mar.

Authors

Peter Vester¹, Ivan A Zaluzhnyy, Ruslan P Kurta², Klaus B Møller³, Elisa Biasin, Kristoffer Haldrup¹, Martin Meedom Nielsen¹, Ivan A Vartanyants

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark.
² European XFEL, Holzkoppel 4, D-22869 Schenefeld, Germany.
³ Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark.

Abstract

We applied angular X-ray Cross-Correlation analysis (XCCA) to scattering images from a femtosecond resolution X-ray free-electron laser pump-probe experiment with solvated PtPOP {[Pt₂(P₂O₅H₂)₄]^4-} metal complex molecules. The molecules were pumped with linear polarized laser pulses creating an excited state population with a preferred orientational (alignment) direction. Two time scales of 1.9 ± 1.5 ps and 46 ± 10 ps were revealed by angular XCCA associated with structural changes and rotational dephasing of the solvent molecules, respectively. These results illustrate the potential of XCCA to reveal hidden structural information in the analysis of time-resolved x-ray scattering data from molecules in solution.