title: Ab initio studies of ultrafast x-ray scattering of the photodissociation of iodine.
abstract: We computationally examine various aspects of the reaction dynamics of the photodissociation and recombination of molecular iodine. We use our recently proposed formalism to calculate time-dependent x-ray scattering signal changes from first principles. Different aspects of the dynamics of this prototypical reaction are studied, such as coherent and noncoherent processes, features of structural relaxation that are periodic in time versus nonperiodic dissociative processes, as well as small electron density changes caused by electronic excitation, all with respect to x-ray scattering. We can demonstrate that wide-angle x-ray scattering offers a possibility to study the changes in electron densities in nonperiodic systems, which render it a suitable technique for the investigation of chemical reactions from a structural dynamics point of view.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, 37077 Göttingen, Am Faβberg 11, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Debnarova
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Techert
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schmatz
mesh_terms: D055598:Chemical Phenomena / Q000528:radiation effects; D007455:Iodine / Q000528:radiation effects*; D010782:Photolysis / Q000528:radiation effects*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007455:Iodine