The ERC Starting Grant SATTOC “Solution ATTOsecond Chemistry” project involves studying the chemical dynamics of solvated systems using state-of-the-art attosecond spectroscopy tools.
Attosecond pulses, which can reach the X-ray range, excite electrons in the inner electronic layers of molecules, i.e. as close as possible to atomic nuclei.
These excited states of matter are highly ephemeral, lasting only a few femtoseconds (10-15 s).
The study of these so-called core-excited molecular states in solvated systems opens up new possibilities in terms of the type of phenomena that can be observed, and the samples that can be accessed. The program is structured around three axes:
Firstly, the ERC project will study electron and energy transfers between solvents and core-excited solutes on attosecond time scales;
Next, a method for laser control of these ephemeral states will be developed to fine-tune the spectral absorption width below the fundamental (so-called natural) limit.
The results of this approach in the gas phase have already been obtained, and the aim here is to extend them to bio-relevant systems in the liquid phase, notably by studying the elementary thresholds of phosphorus and sulfur at 135 and 160 eV respectively.
Finally, a new spectroscopy will be developed that adds chiral specificity to the elemental specificity inherent in X-ray spectroscopies.
Based on an X(2) laser interaction and a non-colinear geometry (see figure below), it will be possible to probe the extent of the chiral character of the molecular potential around an asymmetric center.
Project leader: Hugo MARROUX