Element- and enantiomer-selective visualization of molecular motion in real-time.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36693825.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-36047-5 and PMC identifier 9873934.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Ultrafast optical-domain spectroscopies allow to monitor in real time the motion of nuclei in molecules. Achieving element-selectivity had to await the advent of time resolved X-ray spectroscopy, which is now commonly carried at X-ray free electron lasers. However, detecting light element that are commonly encountered in organic molecules, remained elusive due to the need to work under vacuum. Here, we present an impulsive stimulated Raman scattering (ISRS) pump/carbon K-edge absorption probe investigation, which allowed observation of the low-frequency vibrational modes involving specific selected carbon atoms in the Ibuprofen RS dimer. Remarkably, by controlling the probe light polarization we can preferentially access the enantiomer of the dimer to which the carbon atoms belong.