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The advent of x-ray free electron lasers is providing new opportunities for probing the ultrafast excited state dynamics using structurally sensitive techniques. Herein we use excited state wavepacket dynamics of a prototypical Cu(I)-phenanthroline complex, Cu(dmp)(2) (dmp = 2, 9-dimethyl-1, 10-phenanthroline) to investigate how femtosecond vibrational and electronic relaxation is translated into transient x-ray absorption and emission. Using realistic experimental parameters we also derive the anticipated signal strengths for these transient features. This indicates that although recording a signal capturing the strongest transient (i.e. excited state-ground state) changes will be possible for all cases, only with x-ray absorption near-edge structure and extended x-ray absorption fine structure will it be possible to resolve the fine details associated with the wavepacket dynamics within realistic experimental acquisition times.
Christoph Bostedt, Jun Wang, Zhaoheng Guo, Xiang Li, Siqi Li, Zhen Zhang