X-Ray absorption spectroscopy of H3O.

We report the X-ray absorption of isolated H3O+ cations at the O 1s edge. The molecular ions were prepared in a flowing afterglow ion source which was designed for the production of small water clusters, protonated water clusters, and hydrated ions. Isolated H2O+ cations have been analyzed for comparison. The spectra show significant differences in resonance energies and widths compared to neutral H2O with resonances shifting to higher energies by as much as 10 eV and resonance widths increasing by as much as a factor of 5. The experimental results are supported by time-dependent density functional theory calculations performed for both molecular cations, showing a good agreement with the experimental data. The spectra reported here could enable the identification of the individual molecules in charged small water clusters or liquid water using X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Electronic quantum coherence in glycine molecules probed with ultrashort x-ray pulses in real time.

Here, we use x-rays to create and probe quantum coherence in the photoionized amino acid glycine. The outgoing photoelectron leaves behind the cation in a coherent superposition of quantum mechanical eigenstates. Delayed x-ray pulses track the induced coherence through resonant x-ray absorption that induces Auger decay and by photoelectron emission from sequential double photoionization. Sinusoidal temporal modulation of the detected signal at early times (0 to 25 fs) is observed in both measurements. Advanced ab initio many-electron simulations allow us to explain the first 25 fs of the detected coherent quantum evolution in terms of the electronic coherence. In the kinematically complete x-ray absorption measurement, we monitor its dynamics for a period of 175 fs and observe an evolving modulation that may implicate the coupling of electronic to vibronic coherence at longer time scales. Our experiment provides a direct support for the existence of long-lived electronic coherence in photoionized biomolecules.

Revealing noncollinear magnetic ordering at the atomic scale via XMCD.

Mass-selected V and Fe monomers, as well as the heterodimer [Formula: see text], were deposited on a Cu(001) surface. Their electronic and magnetic properties were investigated via X-ray absorption (XAS) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectroscopy. Anisotropies in the magnetic moments of the deposited species could be examined by means of angle resolving XMCD, i.e. changing the X-ray angle of incidence. A weak adatom-substrate-coupling was found for both elements and, using group theoretical arguments, the ground state symmetries of the adatoms were determined. For the dimer, a switching from antiparallel to parallel orientation of the respective magnetic moments was observed. We show that this is due to the existence of a noncollinear spin-flop phase in the deposited dimers, which could be observed for the first time in such a small system. Making use of the two magnetic sublattices model, we were able to find the relative orientations for the dimer magnetic moments for different incidence angles.

Evidence for the coexistence of spin-glass and ferrimagnetic phases in BaFe12O19 due to basal plane freezing.

We present here the results of low-temperature magnetization and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism studies on the single crystals of BaFe12O19 which reveal for the first time the emergence of a spin glass phase, in coexistence with a long-range ordered ferrimagnetic phase, due to the freezing of the basal plane spin component.