Anne Marie March: Capturing photochemical reaction intermediates with time-resolved synchrotron x-ray spectroscopy

The pump-probe technique allows for measurement of timescales that are shorter than a detector’s response time. Using a MHz-repetition-rate laser to pump a sample, the full x-ray flux of synchrotrons such as the Advanced Photon Source (APS) can be used to probe the ensuing photoinduced reaction(s). The obtained time-resolved XAS and XES spectra can be used to capture the electronic and geometric structure of short lived intermediate species. In this presentation, I will give a brief introduction to the pump-probe measurement technique as implemented at Sector 7 of the APS and present recent studies of the photoinduced aquation reaction of [FeII(CN)6]4-, where we were able to detect an intermediate species with a lifetime 4x shorter than the x-ray probe pulse duration.

References:

1. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5117318
2. https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577519012268