We report the observation of electronic coherence between core-level vacancies created at different atomic sites in a molecule. This coherence, which is a fundamental aspect of quantum mechanics, can be probed by measuring the interference of the …
The fate of thymine upon excitation by ultraviolet radiation has been the subject of intense debate. Today, it is widely believed that its ultrafast excited state gas phase decay stems from a radiationless transition from the bright ππ* state to a …
For many chemical reactions, it remains notoriously difficult to predict and experimentally determine the rates and branching ratios between different reaction channels. This is particularly the case for reactions involving short-lived intermediates, …
As the simplest nitroaromatic compound, nitrobenzene is an interesting model system to explore the rich photochemistry of nitroaromatic compounds. Previous investigations of nitrobenzene's photochemical dynamics have probed structural and electronic …
Conjugated diene molecules are highly reactive upon photoexcitation and can relax through multiple reaction channels that depend on the position of the double bonds and the degree of molecular rigidity. Understanding the photoinduced dynamics of …
The dynamics of cyclopentadiene (CP) following optical excitation at 243 nm was investigated by time-resolved pump–probe X-ray scattering using 16.2 keV X-rays at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). We present the first ultrafast structural …