Journal Article

When an electronically excited atom or molecule is embedded in a chemical environment as, e.g., in a liquid or a loosely bound cluster, it can de-excite through mechanisms where neighboring atoms or molecules are actively participating in the decay: either by donating or accepting energy or electrons. For such nonlocal decay channels, nuclear dynamics play a crucial role as they have a direct impact on the decay efficiency itself. [...]

We experimentally demonstrate that individual molecules of formic acid are chiral even when they are in the vibronic ground state, which has a planar equilibrium structure. We ionize the C 1⁢𝑠 shell of the molecule and record the photoelectron in coincidence with positively charged fragments. [...]

X-ray cavity quantum optics with inner-shell transitions has been limited by the spectral overlap between resonant and continuum states. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of cavity-controlled core-to-core resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) [...]

Tooth enamel of most mammals shows alternating light and dark bands, called Hunter-Schreger bands (HSB), in longitudinal sections caused by decussating bundles of prisms, the unit building blocks of mammalian enamel. HSB are thought to increase resistance to abrasive food and mitigate crack propagation and hence are considered a mammalian adaptation to high-efficiency mastication [...]

We report a facile centrifugation-based method for assembling polystyrene (PSSH)-functionalized gold nanoparticles (Au NPs)onto porous silicon (pSi) substrates in two distinct configurations: two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) assemblies. The 2Dassemblies are densely packed monolayer coatings of the exposed Si-surfaces including the inner pore walls, whereas the 3Dstructures result from Au NPs clustering inside the pores. [...]

We present the results from a detailed study of the fragmentation dynamics of and, formed in intense femtosecond soft x-ray pulses above the sulfur 2p edge, primarily through single core photoionization from the S 2p site, and subsequent Auger–Meitner decay(s). By combining three-dimensional velocity map imaging with covariance analysis, we determine the relative momenta of the ions produced in each two- and three-body fragmentation channel, at significantly higher ion count rates than conventional coincidence measurements. [...]

The discrepancy in the attosecond time delay between theory and experiment near the 3⁢𝑠 Cooper minimum (CM) of Ar is addressed. It is found that inclusion of the relaxation effects in the time delay difference between Ar 3⁢𝑠 and 3⁢𝑝 photoionization near the 3⁢𝑠 CM dramatically alters the 3⁢𝑠 time delay and brings the theory into substantial agreement with experiment using the relativistic-random-phase approximation with relaxation. [...]

Advances in X-ray and neutron sources, as well as in area-detector technologies, enable the recording of several terabytes of raw two-dimensional detector data in a single experiment. While several efficient integration and conversion tools are available for data collected in transmission geometry, analogous solutions for grazing-incidence diffraction (including grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction and grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering) experiments have not yet achieved the same level of efficiency. [...]

Natural history collections house material from centuries of collecting efforts. In the Phyletisches Museum Jena (PMJ), ca [...]

Wood tracheids and fibers exhibit diverse structures and shapes across plant species. The hierarchical structure and composition of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin enables wood to withstand high stress [...]