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- ItemShort-Range Cooperative Slow-down of Water Solvation Dynamics Around SO42--Mg2+ Ion Pairs(Washington, DC : American Chemical Society, 2022) Kundu, Achintya; Mamatkulov, Shavkat I.; Brünig, Florian N.; Bonthuis, Douwe Jan; Netz, Roland R.; Elsaesser, Thomas; Fingerhut, Benjamin P.The presence of ions affects the structure and dynamics of water on a multitude of length and time scales. In this context, pairs of Mg2+ and SO42- ions in water constitute a prototypical system for which conflicting pictures of hydration geometries and dynamics have been reported. Key issues are the molecular pair and solvation shell geometries, the spatial range of electric interactions, and their impact on solvation dynamics. Here, we introduce asymmetric SO42- stretching vibrations as new and most specific local probes of solvation dynamics that allow to access ion hydration dynamics at the dilute concentration (0.2 M) of a native electrolyte environment. Highly sensitive heterodyne 2D-IR spectroscopy in the fingerprint region of the SO42- ions around 1100 cm-1 reveals a specific slow-down of solvation dynamics for hydrated MgSO4 and for Na2SO4 in the presence of Mg2+ ions, which manifests as a retardation of spectral diffusion compared to aqueous Na2SO4 solutions in the absence of Mg2+ ions. Extensive molecular dynamics and density functional theory QM/MM simulations provide a microscopic view of the observed ultrafast dephasing and hydration dynamics. They suggest a molecular picture where the slow-down of hydration dynamics arises from the structural peculiarities of solvent-shared SO42--Mg2+ ion pairs.
- ItemScanning single quantum emitter fluorescence lifetime imaging: Quantitative analysis of the local density of photonic states(Washington, DC : American Chemical Society, 2014) Schell, A.W.; Engel, P.; Werra, J.F.M.; Wolff, C.; Busch, K.; Benson, O.Their intrinsic properties render single quantum systems as ideal tools for quantum enhanced sensing and microscopy. As an additional benefit, their size is typically on an atomic scale that enables sensing with very high spatial resolution. Here, we report on utilizing a single nitrogen vacancy center in nanodiamond for performing three-dimensional scanning-probe fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. By measuring changes of the single emitter's lifetime, information on the local density of optical states is acquired at the nanoscale. Three-dimensional ab initio discontinuous Galerkin time-domain simulations are used in order to verify the results and to obtain additional insights. This combination of experiment and simulations to gather quantitative information on the local density of optical states is of direct relevance for the understanding of fundamental quantum optical processes as well as for the engineering of novel photonic and plasmonic devices.
- ItemFemtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy of the cyclobutane thymine dimer repair mechanism: A computational study(Washington, DC : American Chemical Society, 2014) Ando, H.; Fingerhut, B.P.; Dorfman, K.E.; Biggs, J.D.; Mukamel, S.Cyclobutane thymine dimer, one of the major lesions in DNA formed by exposure to UV sunlight, is repaired in a photoreactivation process, which is essential to maintain life. The molecular mechanism of the central step, i.e., intradimer C-C bond splitting, still remains an open question. In a simulation study, we demonstrate how the time evolution of characteristic marker bands (C=O and C=C/C-C stretch vibrations) of cyclobutane thymine dimer and thymine dinucleotide radical anion, thymidylyl(3′→5′)-thymidine, can be directly probed with femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS). We construct a DFT(M05-2X) potential energy surface with two minor barriers for the intradimer C5-C′5 splitting and a main barrier for the C6-C′6 splitting, and identify the appearance of two C5=C6 stretch vibrations due to the C6-C′6 splitting as a spectroscopic signature of the underlying bond splitting mechanism. The sequential mechanism shows only absorptive features in the simulated FSRS signals, whereas the fast concerted mechanism shows characteristic dispersive line shapes. (Figure Presented).
- ItemImaging Proton Transfer and Dihalide Formation Pathways in Reactions of F(-) + CH3I(Washington, DC : American Chemical Society, 2016) Carrascosa, Eduardo; Michaelsen, Tim; Stei, Martin; Bastian, Björn; Meyer, Jennifer; Mikosch, Jochen; Wester, RolandIon–molecule reactions of the type X– + CH3Y are commonly assumed to produce Y– through bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2). Beyond this reaction, additional reaction products have been observed throughout the last decades and have been ascribed to different entrance channel geometries differing from the commonly assumed collinear approach. We have performed a crossed beam velocity map imaging experiment on the F– + CH3I reaction at different relative collision energies between 0.4 and 2.9 eV. We find three additional channels competing with nucleophilic substitution at high energies. Experimental branching ratios and angle- and energy differential cross sections are presented for each product channel. The proton transfer product CH2I– is the main reaction channel, which competes with nucleophilic substitution up to 2.9 eV relative collision energy. At this level, the second additional channel, the formation of IF– via halogen abstraction, becomes more efficient. In addition, we present the first evidence for an [FHI]− product ion. This [FHI]− product ion is present only for a narrow range of collision energies, indicating possible dissociation at high energies. All three products show a similar trend with respect to their velocity- and scattering angle distributions, with isotropic scattering and forward scattering of the product ions occurring at low and high energies, respectively. Reactions leading to all three reaction channels present a considerable amount of energy partitioning in product internal excitation. The internally excited fraction shows a collision energy dependence only for CH2I–. A similar trend is observed for the isoelectronic OH– + CH3I system. The comparison of our experimental data at 1.55 eV collision energy with a recent theoretical calculation for the same system shows a slightly higher fraction of internal excitation than predicted, which is, however, compatible within the experimental accuracy.