Structural Dynamics in Excited State Molecules, Clusters and Metalloproteins Probed by Ultrafast Laser, X-Ray Spectroscopies and Scattering

by Prof. Lin X. Chen (Chemical Science and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois, USA, Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA)

Tuesday 11 Nov 2025, 13:00 → 14:00 Europe/Berlin

XHV / Auditorium (EuXFEL Schenefel)

Many photochemical events start from initial light-matter interactions that cause atomic and electronic displacements in the excited states away from the energy minima of their potential energy surfaces. When certain photochemical events, such as bond breaking, intersystem crossing and electron/energy transfer are taking place within the periods of key vibrational modes, the excited state energies are determined by the trajectories defined by the actual nuclear movements that may lead to different reaction pathways and outcome. Examples will be given in the work of tracking excited state pathways for transition metal complexes on the time scales from femtosecond to a few picoseconds, 1) excited state Cu(I) and Pt(II) dimer complexes, 2) model cobalt cubanes and CoPi/CoBi OER catalysts, and 3) metalloproteins. Meanwhile, fs broadband transient spectroscopy and fs X-ray solution scattering, coherent vibrational wavepacket motions can be examined. These studies not only detected new phenomena in the excited state, such as spin-vibronic driven intersystem crossing, but also provided guidance in molecular design and synthesis for optimal photochemical outcome.

 

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