Couto, R.C.; Cruz, V.V.; Ertan, E.; Eckert, S.; Fondell, M.; Dantz, M.; Kennedy, B.; Schmitt, T.; Pietzsch, A.; Guimaraes, F.F.; Agren, H.; Gel'mukhanov, F.; Odelius, M.; Kimberg, V.; Föhlisch, A.: Selective gating to vibrational modes through resonant X-ray scattering. Nature Communications 8 (2017), p. 14165/1-7
10.1038/ncomms14165
Open Access Version
Abstract:
The dynamics of fragmentation and vibration of molecular systems with a large number of coupled degrees of freedom are key aspects for understanding chemical reactivity and properties. Here we present a resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) study to show how it is possible to break down such a complex multidimensional problem into elementary components. Local multimode nuclear wave packets created by X-ray excitation to different core-excited potential energy surfaces (PESs) will act as spatial gates to selectively probe the particular ground-state vibrational modes and, hence, the PES along these modes. We demonstrate this principle by combining ultra-high resolution RIXS measurements for gas-phase water with state-of-the-art simulations.