Researchers have discovered tiny time delays in electron activity within molecules when exposed to X-rays, a groundbreaking finding made possible by advanced X-ray lasers at the Linac Coherent Light Source.
These delays, measured in attoseconds, reveal complex interactions that could advance our understanding of molecular dynamics and potentially influence fields like cancer detection.
Pioneering Attosecond Measurements
An international team of scientists is the first to report incredibly small time delays in a molecule’s electron activity when the particles are exposed to X-rays.
To measure these tiny high-speed events, known as attoseconds, researchers used a laser to generate intense X-ray flashes that allowed them to map the inner workings of an atom.
Their findings revealed that when electrons are ejected by X-rays, they interact with another type of particle called the Auger-Meitner electron, causing a secondary pause that’s never been detected before. These results have implications for a wide range of research fields, as learning more about these interactions can reveal novel ideas about complex molecular dynamics, said Lou DiMauro, co-author of the study and a professor of physics at The Ohio State University.
Applications and Historical Context
“X-rays are interesting probes of matter,” DiMauro said. “You could use them to take a series of stop-action snapshots of a molecule as it evolves before or during a chemical reaction.”
The study was published on August 21 in the journal Nature.
While there have been many noteworthy leaps in scientists’ ability to study attosecond delays using ultraviolet light over the past two decades, for years it was a task made all the more challenging due to the scarcity of advanced tools needed to produce them.
Advanced Research Techniques and Findings
It was so difficult that Pierre Agostini, an emeritus professor of physics at Ohio State, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for his past work developing techniques to study electron dynamics using pulses of light that lasts for hundreds of attoseconds, a unit of time equivalent to one quintillionth of a second.
It wasn’t until relatively recently that new technologies such as the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), a massive free electron laser device at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, made these pulses much easier to create and visualize in the lab, said DiMauro.
Using the LCLS, the team studied how electrons inhabit a nitric oxide molecule, focusing on the electron particles that reside near the atom’s oxygen core. They found that there were unexpectedly large delays that ranged up to 700 attoseconds, a pattern that suggests more complicated factors could be at play when determining what causes them, said Alexandra Landsman, a co-author of the study and professor of physics at Ohio State.
Implications for Future Research
“We looked at what happens when you take out the electron from deep inside an atom, and what surprised me was how complex the dynamics of those deeply bound electrons were,” said Landsman. “This means that behavior is much more complex than scientists thought, and we need better theoretical descriptions to fully describe the light-matter interaction.”
Yet despite more research being needed to further understand the structure of these interactions, uncovering formerly hidden details about them also gives scientists new insights to consider, said DiMauro.
For example, if scientists can get a better grasp on intra-particle behavior, some experts speculate that their discoveries could be vital to breakthroughs for early cancer detection technologies, such as being able to use molecular markers to diagnose blood cancers or detect malignant tumors.
Furthermore, this paper suggests that, combined with theoretical models, researchers could use advances in attosecond science to glimpse matter on some of the smallest scales imaginable, as well as study in greater detail many broader mysteries of the physical universe.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how we use attosecond pulses to learn more about science, engineering or nature in general,” said DiMauro. “Because what’s described in this paper is an indication of a field that’s really going to blossom.”
For more on this research, see Beyond Einstein: Attosecond X-Ray Pulses Unlock the Secrets of the Photoelectric Effect.
Reference: “Attosecond delays in X-ray molecular ionization” by Taran Driver, Miles Mountney, Jun Wang, Lisa Ortmann, Andre Al-Haddad, Nora Berrah, Christoph Bostedt, Elio G. Champenois, Louis F. DiMauro, Joseph Duris, Douglas Garratt, James M. Glownia, Zhaoheng Guo, Daniel Haxton, Erik Isele, Igor Ivanov, Jiabao Ji, Andrei Kamalov, Siqi Li, Ming-Fu Lin, Jon P. Marangos, Razib Obaid, Jordan T. O’Neal, Philipp Rosenberger, Niranjan H. Shivaram, Anna L. Wang, Peter Walter, Thomas J. A. Wolf, Hans Jakob Wörner, Zhen Zhang, Philip H. Bucksbaum, Matthias F. Kling, Alexandra S. Landsman, Robert R. Lucchese, Agapi Emmanouilidou, Agostino Marinelli and James P. Cryan, 21 August 2024, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07771-9
This study was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science and Office of Basic Energy Sciences. James Cryan, senior scientist at Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and an Ohio State alum, was the lead author of the study. Lisa Ortmann of Ohio State was also a co-author.
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.
1 Comment
Their findings revealed that when electrons are ejected by X-rays, they interact with another type of particle called the Auger-Meitner electron, causing a secondary pause that’s never been detected before.
The synchronous effect of countless topological vortices makes spacetime motion complex, and the energy gaps formed by and between topological vortices are the linchpin to the evolution of vortices motion from low dimensional spacetime to high-dimensional spacetime. It can be certain that the attoseconds are far from the synchronous effect, the things researchers don’t see in nature far exceed what they can see.
Keep trying.