title: Ultrafast phase transitions in metastable water near liquid interfaces.
abstract: Electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) is a powerful tool for the quantitative analysis of the composition and the chemical environment of molecular systems. Due to the lack of compatibility of liquids and vacuum, liquid-phase ESCA is much less well established. The chemical shift in the static ESCA approach is a particularly powerful observable quantity for probing electron orbital energies in molecules in different molecular environments. Employing high harmonics of 800 nm (40 eV), near-infrared femtosecond pulses, and liquid-water microbeams in vacuum we were able to add the dimension of time to the liquid interface ESCA technique. Tracing time-dependent chemical shifts and energies of valence electrons in liquid interfacial water in time, we have investigated the timescale and molecular signatures of laser-induced liquid-gas phase transitions on a picosecond timescale.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physikalische Chemie der Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Link
authors.forename: Esteban
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vöhringer-Martinez
authors.forename: Eugen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lugovoj
authors.forename: Yaxing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Siefermann
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Faubel
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Grubmüller
authors.forename: R Benny
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.forename: Yifat
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Abel
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D007834:Lasers; D044367:Phase Transition; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013499:Surface Properties; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014618:Vacuum; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012996:Solutions; D014867:Water