Electronic quantum coherence in glycine molecules probed with ultrashort x-ray pulses in real time
Publication date
2022-06-03
Document type
Research article
Author
Schwickert, David
Ruberti, Marco
Kolorenč, Přemysl
Usenko, Sergey
Przystawik, Andreas
Baev, Karolin
Baev, Ivan
Braune, Markus
Bocklage, Lars
Czwalinna, Marie Kristin
Deinert, Sascha
Düsterer, Stefan
Hans, Andreas
Hartmann, Gregor
Haunhorst, Christian
Kuhlmann, Marion
Palutke, Steffen
Röhlsberger, Ralf
Rönsch-Schulenburg, Juliane
Toleikis, Sven
Viefhaus, Jens
Martins, Michael
Knie, André
Averbukh, Vitali
Marangos, Jon P
Laarmann, Tim
Organisational unit
Scopus ID
Pubmed ID
arXiv ID
Series or journal
Science advances
Periodical volume
8
Periodical issue
22
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Keyword
Physics - Chemical Physics
Physics - Optics
Quantum Physics
Abstract
Here, we use x-rays to create and probe quantum coherence in the photoionized amino acid glycine. The outgoing photoelectron leaves behind the cation in a coherent superposition of quantum mechanical eigenstates. Delayed x-ray pulses track the induced coherence through resonant x-ray absorption that induces Auger decay and by photoelectron emission from sequential double photoionization. Sinusoidal temporal modulation of the detected signal at early times (0 to 25 fs) is observed in both measurements. Advanced ab initio many-electron simulations allow us to explain the first 25 fs of the detected coherent quantum evolution in terms of the electronic coherence. In the kinematically complete x-ray absorption measurement, we monitor its dynamics for a period of 175 fs and observe an evolving modulation that may implicate the coupling of electronic to vibronic coherence at longer time scales. Our experiment provides a direct support for the existence of long-lived electronic coherence in photoionized biomolecules.
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