Ultrafast phase transitions in metastable water near liquid interfaces.
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.
Link
Oliver
O
Institut für Physikalische Chemie der Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
Vöhringer-Martinez
Esteban
E
Lugovoj
Eugen
E
Liu
Yaxing
Y
Siefermann
Katrin
K
Faubel
Manfred
M
Grubmüller
Helmut
H
Gerber
R Benny
RB
Miller
Yifat
Y
Abel
Bernd
B
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*
D012996:Solutions; D014867:Water