title: Snapshots of the fluctuating hydrogen bond network in liquid water on the sub-femtosecond timescale with vibrational resonant inelastic x-ray scattering.
abstract: Liquid water molecules interact strongly with each other, forming a fluctuating hydrogen bond network and thereby giving rise to the anomalous phase diagram of liquid water. Consequently, symmetric and asymmetric water molecules have been found in the picosecond time average with IR and optical Raman spectroscopy. With subnatural linewidth resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at vibrational resolution, we take sub-femtosecond snapshots of the electronic and structural properties of water molecules in the hydrogen bond network. We derive a strong dominance of nonsymmetric molecules in liquid water in contrast to the gas phase on the sub-femtosecond timescale of RIXS and determine the fraction of highly asymmetrically distorted molecules.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research G-ISRR, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pietzsch
authors.affiliation: MAX IV Laboratory, Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hennies
authors.affiliation: Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research G-ISRR, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Miedema
authors.affiliation: Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research G-ISRR, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.affiliation: Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research G-ISRR, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schlappa
authors.affiliation: Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.affiliation: Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
authors.forename: V N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Strocov
authors.affiliation: Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research G-ISRR, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.|Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Föhlisch