Events

Date: 29 January 2025   Time: 10:00 - 11:00     

Location: Eng. 2.09

Core-level Spectroscopies as Tools for Chemical Dynamics

Abstract:

For larger and more complex molecules, one of the biggest challenges for experimental spectroscopy is in the interpretation of heavily convoluted spectra. X-ray spectroscopies and their element and site-selectivity can help address this challenge by providing observables that are uniquely related to particular atomic sites or functional groups in a system.

In this talk, I will discuss how, with combinations of complementary X-ray methods, it is possible to extract information on both electronic structure and dynamical processes on a series of molecular systems. I will look at how our recent developments for resonant X-ray techniques1-3 are extending the chemically relevant information that can be extracted from these methods for polyatomics and present some recent ultrafast X-ray results from free-electron laser facilities.

D.M.P. Holland et al., Deconvolution of the X-ray Absorption Spectrum of trans-1,3-Butadiene with Resonant Auger Spectroscopy, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2024, 26, 15130-15142
E. Muchová, et al., Jahn–Teller effects in initial and final states: high-resolution X-ray absorption, photoelectron and Auger spectroscopy of allene, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2023, 25, 6733-6745
R.A. Ingle, et al., Carbon K-edge x-ray emission spectroscopy of gas phase ethylenic molecules, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys., 2022, 55, 044001

Bio:

Dr Rebecca Ingle completed her PhD at the University of Bristol under the supervision of Professor Mike Ashfold before joining the research group of Professor Majed Chergui at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2020, she was appointed Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at University College London. Her research interests cover both spectroscopic method developments and the applications of ultrafast spectroscopies across the electromagnetic spectrum and automation approaches to study photoinduced processes in molecules in a variety of environments.