LCLS is a Department of Energy funded user facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory managed by Stanford University
Chemistry-related research at LCLS is supported and performed by the Chemical Sciences Department. You can learn about the department, its research activities, and publications here or contact the department head Thomas Wolf.
Mapping Chemical Bonds, Frontier Orbitals
Mapping the evolution of charge distributions, oxidation states, and frontier orbitals via time-resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) is a powerful approach providing element-specific insight to the dynamics of chemical bonds and excited-state charge distributions. Soft X-ray RIXS is particularly sensitive to the most abundant elements (C, N, O) that comprise ligand structures, and to the d-electrons of abundant transition metals.
Solvent Dynamics in Chemical Reactivity
The solvent environment plays a critical role in molecular charge-transfer reactions, but direct observation of the relevant short-range coupled solvent motions is a significant challenge. Multi-modal time-resolved X-ray scattering and spectroscopy reveal the correlated solvent and electronic structural dynamics associated with photo-induced metal-to-metal charge transfer in a mixed-valence complex.
Coupled Electronic & Molecular Dynamics
Excited-state reaction pathways are mediated by close coupling of charge dynamics and subtle changes in atomic structure. Multi-modal time-resolved X-ray scattering and spectroscopy directly quantify the initial molecular excited-state coupling of electronic and structural configurations with atomic resolution and spin-state specificity.
Probing Catalytic Reactions in Real Time
Thermally-driven chemistry is mediated by the transition state that separates reactants from products, and determines reaction pathways. Understanding the chemical structure of ephemeral transition states is a grand challenge in chemistry. LCLS studies have directly observed transition states for the first time via element-specific time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy following the stimulation of catalytic CO oxidation on Ruthenium.
