Comment on "Isotope and temperature effects in liquid water probed by X-ray absorption and resonant -ray emission spectroscopy"

X-ray emission spectroscopy: a genetic algorithm to disentangle core–hole-induced dynamics

A genetic algorithm (GA) is developed and applied to make proper connections of final-state potential-energy surfaces and X-ray emission (XES) cross sections between steps in the time-propagation of H-bonded systems after a core–hole is created. We show that this modification results in significantly improved resolution of spectral features in XES with the semiclassical Kramers–Heisenberg approach which takes into account important interference effects. We demonstrate the effects on a water pentamer model as well as on two 17-molecules water clusters representing, respectively, tetrahedral (D2A2) and asymmetric (D1A1) H-bonding environments. For D2A2, the applied procedure improves significantly the obtained intensities, whereas for D1A1 the effects are smaller due to milder dynamics during the core–hole life-time as only one hydrogen is involved. We reinvestigate XES for liquid ethanol and, by properly disentangling the relevant states in the dense manifold of states using the GA, now resolve the important 3a′′ state as a peak rather than a shoulder. Furthermore, by applying the SpecSwap-RMC procedure, we reweigh the distribution of structures in the sampling of the liquid to fit to experiment and estimate the ratio between the main anti and gauche conformers in the liquid at room temperature. This combination of techniques will be generally applicable to challenging problems in liquid-phase spectroscopy.

On the existence of soliton-like collective modes in liquid water at the viscoelastic crossover

The problem of large-density variations in supercooled and ambient water has been widely discussed in the past years. Recent studies have indicated the possibility of nanometer-sized density variations on the subpicosecond and picosecond time scales. The nature of fluctuating density heterogeneities remains a highly debated issue. In the present work, we address the problem of possible association of such density variations with the dynamics of terahertz longitudinal acoustic-like modes in liquid water. Our study is based on the fact that the subpicosecond dynamics of liquid water are essentially governed by the structural relaxation. Using a mode coupling theory approach, we found that for typical values of parameters of liquid water, the dynamic mechanism coming from the combination of the structural relaxation process and the finiteness of the amplitude of terahertz longitudinal acoustic-like mode gives rise to a soliton-like collective mode on a temperature-dependent nanometer length scale. The characteristics of this mode are consistent with the estimates of the amplitudes and temperature-dependent correlation lengths of density fluctuations in liquid water obtained in experiments and simulations. Thus, the fully dynamic mechanism could contribute to the formation and dynamics of fluctuating density heterogeneities. The soliton-like collective excitations suggested by our analysis may be relevant to different phenomena connected with supercooled water and can be expected to be associated with some ultrafast biological processes.

A proposal for the structure of high- and low-density fluctuations in liquid water

Based on recent experimental data that can be interpreted as indicating the presence of specific structures in liquid water, we build and optimize two structural models which we compare with the available experimental data. To represent the proposed high-density liquid structures, we use a model consisting of chains of water molecules, and for low-density liquid, we investigate fused dodecahedra as templates for tetrahedral fluctuations. The computed infrared spectra of the models are in very good agreement with the extracted experimental spectra for the two components, while the extracted structures from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations give spectra that are intermediate between the experimentally derived spectra. Computed x-ray absorption and emission spectra as well as the O-O radial distribution functions of the proposed structures are not contradicted by experiment. The stability of the proposed dodecahedral template structures is investigated in MD simulations by seeding the starting structure, and remnants found to persist on an ∼30 ps time scale. We discuss the possible significance of such seeds in simulations and whether they can be viable candidates as templates for structural fluctuations below the compressibility minimum of liquid water.

X-ray Emission Spectrum of Liquid Ethanol: Origin of Split Peaks

The X-ray emission spectrum of liquid ethanol was calculated using density functional theory and a semiclassical approximation to the Kramers-Heisenberg formula including core-hole-induced dynamics. Our spectrum agrees well with the experimental spectrum. We found that the intensity ratio between the two peaks at 526 and 527 eV assigned as 10a' and 3a″ depends not only on the hydrogen bonding network around the target molecule but also on the intramolecular conformation. This effect is absent in liquid methanol and demonstrates the high sensitivity of X-ray emission to molecular structure. The dependence of spectral features on hydrogen-bonding as well as on dynamical effects following core excitation are also discussed.

Core-hole-induced dynamical effects in the x-ray emission spectrum of liquid methanol

We compute the x-ray emission spectrum of liquid methanol, with the dynamical effects that result from the creation of the core hole included in a semiclassical way. Our method closely reproduces a fully quantum mechanical description of the dynamical effects for relevant one-dimensional models of the hydrogen-bonded methanol molecules. For the liquid, we find excellent agreement with the experimental spectrum, including the large isotope effect in the first split peak. The dynamical effects depend sensitively on the initial structure in terms of the local hydrogen-bonding (H-bonding) character: non-donor molecules contribute mainly to the high-energy peak while molecules with a strong donating H-bond contribute to the peak at lower energy. The spectrum thus reflects the initial structure mediated by the dynamical effects that are, however, seen to be crucial in order to reproduce the intensity distribution of the recently measured spectrum.

Investigation of the Ionic Hydration in Aqueous Salt Solutions by Soft X-ray Emission Spectroscopy

Understanding the molecular structure of the hydration shells and their impact on the hydrogen bond (HB) network of water in aqueous salt solutions is a fundamentally important and technically relevant question. In the present work, such hydration effects were studied for a series of representative salt solutions (NaCl, KCl, CaCl2, MgCl2, and KBr) by soft X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering (RIXS). The oxygen K-edge XES spectra could be described with three components, attributed to initial state HB configurations in pure water, water molecules that have undergone an ultrafast dissociation initiated by the X-ray excitation, and water molecules in contact with salt ions. The behavior of the individual components, as well as the spectral shape of the latter component, has been analyzed in detail. In view of the role of ions in such effects as protein denaturation (i.e., the Hofmeister series), we discuss the ion-specific nature of the hydration shells and find that the results point to a predominant role of anions as compared to cations. Furthermore, we observe a concentration-dependent suppression of ultrafast dissociation in all salt solutions, associated with a significant distortion of intact HB configurations of water molecules facilitating such a dissociation.

Water: A Tale of Two Liquids

Water is the most abundant liquid on earth and also the substance with the largest number of anomalies in its properties. It is a prerequisite for life and as such a most important subject of current research in chemical physics and physical chemistry. In spite of its simplicity as a liquid, it has an enormously rich phase diagram where different types of ices, amorphous phases, and anomalies disclose a path that points to unique thermodynamics of its supercooled liquid state that still hides many unraveled secrets. In this review we describe the behavior of water in the regime from ambient conditions to the deeply supercooled region. The review describes simulations and experiments on this anomalous liquid. Several scenarios have been proposed to explain the anomalous properties that become strongly enhanced in the supercooled region. Among those, the second critical-point scenario has been investigated extensively, and at present most experimental evidence point to this scenario. Starting from very low temperatures, a coexistence line between a high-density amorphous phase and a low-density amorphous phase would continue in a coexistence line between a high-density and a low-density liquid phase terminating in a liquid–liquid critical point, LLCP. On approaching this LLCP from the one-phase region, a crossover in thermodynamics and dynamics can be found. This is discussed based on a picture of a temperature-dependent balance between a high-density liquid and a low-density liquid favored by, respectively, entropy and enthalpy, leading to a consistent picture of the thermodynamics of bulk water. Ice nucleation is also discussed, since this is what severely impedes experimental investigation of the vicinity of the proposed LLCP. Experimental investigation of stretched water, i.e., water at negative pressure, gives access to a different regime of the complex water diagram. Different ways to inhibit crystallization through confinement and aqueous solutions are discussed through results from experiments and simulations using the most sophisticated and advanced techniques. These findings represent tiles of a global picture that still needs to be completed. Some of the possible experimental lines of research that are essential to complete this picture are explored.

X-ray and Electron Spectroscopy of Water

Here we present an overview of recent developments of X-ray and electron spectroscopy to probe water at different temperatures. Photon-induced ionization followed by detection of electrons from either the O 1s level or the valence band is the basis of photoelectron spectroscopy. Excitation between the O 1s and the unoccupied states or occupied states is utilized in X-ray absorption and X-ray emission spectroscopies. These techniques probe the electronic structure of the liquid phase and show sensitivity to the local hydrogen-bonding structure. Both experimental aspects related to the measurements and theoretical simulations to assist in the interpretation are discussed in detail. Different model systems are presented such as the different bulk phases of ice and various adsorbed monolayer structures on metal surfaces.

The structural origin of anomalous properties of liquid water

Water is unique in its number of unusual, often called anomalous, properties. When hot it is a normal simple liquid; however, close to ambient temperatures properties, such as the compressibility, begin to deviate and do so increasingly on further cooling. Clearly, these emerging properties are connected to its ability to form up to four well-defined hydrogen bonds allowing for different local structural arrangements. A wealth of new data from various experiments and simulations has recently become available. When taken together they point to a heterogeneous picture with fluctuations between two classes of local structural environments developing on temperature-dependent length scales.

Probing hydrogen bonding orbitals: resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering of aqueous NH3

Resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering was used to probe the hydrogen bonding orbitals in aqueous ammonia.

Dynamics of the OH group and the electronic structure of liquid alcohols

In resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering (RIXS) from molecular and liquid systems, the interplay of ground state structural and core-excited state dynamical contributions leads to complex spectral shapes that partially allow for ambiguous interpretations. In this work, we dissect these contributions in oxygen K-edge RIXS from liquid alcohols. We use the scattering into the electronic ground state as an accurate measure of nuclear dynamics in the intermediate core-excited state of the RIXS process. We determine the characteristic time in the core-excited state until nuclear dynamics give a measurable contribution to the RIXS spectral profiles to τ dyn = 1.2 ± 0.8 fs. By detuning the excitation energy below the absorption resonance we reduce the effective scattering time below τ dyn, and hence suppress these dynamical contributions to a minimum. From the corresponding RIXS spectra of liquid methanol, we retrieve the "dynamic-free" density of states and find that it is described solely by the electronic states of the free methanol molecule. From this and from the comparison of normal and deuterated methanol, we conclude that the split peak structure found in the lone-pair emission region at non-resonant excitation originates from dynamics in the O-H bond in the core-excited state. We find no evidence that this split peak feature is a signature of distinct ground state structural complexes in liquid methanol. However, we demonstrate how changes in the hydrogen bond coordination within the series of linear alcohols from methanol to hexanol affect the split peak structure in the liquid alcohols.

Selective probing of the OH or OD stretch vibration in liquid water using resonant inelastic soft-x-ray scattering

High-resolution O 1s resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra of liquid H2O, D2O, and HDO, obtained by excitation near the preedge resonance show, in the elastic line region, well-separated multiple vibrational structures corresponding to the internal OH stretch vibration in the ground state of water. The energy of the first-order vibrational excitation is strongly blueshifted with respect to the main band in the infrared or Raman spectra of water, indicating that water molecules with a highly weakened or broken donating hydrogen bond are correlated with the preedge structure in the x-ray absorption spectrum. The vibrational profile of preedge excited HDO water is well fitted with 50%±20% greater OH-stretch contribution compared to OD, which strongly supports a preference for OH being the weakened or broken H-bond in agreement with the well-known picture that D2O makes stronger H-bonds than H2O. Accompanying path-integral molecular dynamics simulations show that this is particularly the case for strongly asymmetrically H-bonded molecules, i.e., those that are selected by preedge excitation.

Polarization dependent resonant x-ray emission spectroscopy of D2O and H2O water: assignment of the local molecular orbital symmetry

The polarization dependence of the split two peaks in the lone-pair region in the x-ray emission spectra has been determined at several different excitation energies for both D(2)O and H(2)O water. In contrast to predictions based on a narrow range of local water structures where the two peaks would be of different molecular orbital symmetry and arise from, respectively, intact and dissociated molecules, we show that the two peaks in the lone-pair region are both of lone-pair 1b(1) orbital symmetry. The results support the interpretation that the two peaks appear due to fluctuations between two distinct different main structural environments.

High-resolution soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of liquid water

High-resolution soft X-ray photoelectron spectra of liquid water (H(2)O and D(2)O) were measured using a liquid beam photoelectron spectrometer. The 1a(1) (O1s) band and the lowest valence 1b(1) band had single peaks, which is not consistent with the split 1b(1)→ 1a(1) of the X-ray emission band of liquid water if the splitting is assumed to originate from level shifts in two different hydrogen bonding structures. The second valence 3a(1) band of liquid water exhibited a flat top implying that two bands exist underneath a broad feature, which is similar to the case of the 3a(1) band of amorphous ice. The energy splitting between the two 3a(1) bands is estimated to be 1.38 eV (H(2)O) and 1.39 eV (D(2)O). Ab initio calculations suggest that the large splitting of the 3a(1) band is characteristic of water molecules that function as both proton donor and acceptor. The overall result is consistent with the conventional model of a tetrahedral hydrogen-bonding network in liquid water.

Solid and liquid spectroscopic analysis (SALSA)--a soft x-ray spectroscopy endstation with a novel flow-through liquid cell

We present a novel synchrotron endstation with a flow-through liquid cell designed to study the electronic structure of liquids using soft x-ray spectroscopies. In this cell, the liquid under study is separated from the vacuum by a thin window membrane, such that the sample liquid can be investigated at ambient pressure. The temperature of the probing volume can be varied in a broad range and with a fast temperature response. The optimized design of the cell significantly reduces the amount of required sample liquid and allows the use of different window membrane types necessary to cover a broad energy range. The liquid cell is integrated into the solid and liquid spectroscopic analysis (SALSA) endstation that includes a high-resolution, high-transmission x-ray spectrometer and a state-of-the-art electron analyzer. The modular design of SALSA also allows the measurement of solid-state samples. The capabilities of the liquid cell and the x-ray spectrometer are demonstrated using a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering map of a 25 wt % NaOD solution.

The local electronic structure of alpha-Li3N

New theoretical and experimental investigations of the occupied and unoccupied local electronic densities of states (DOS) are reported for alpha-Li(3)N. Band-structure and density-functional theory calculations confirm the absence of covalent bonding character. However, real-space full-multiple-scattering (RSFMS) calculations of the occupied local DOS find less extreme nominal valences than have previously been proposed. Nonresonant inelastic x-ray scattering, RSFMS calculations, and calculations based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation are used to characterize the unoccupied electronic final states local to both the Li and N sites. There is a good agreement between experiment and theory. Throughout the Li 1s near-edge region, both experiment and theory find strong similarities in the s-and p-type components of the unoccupied local final DOS projected onto an orbital angular momentum basis (l-DOS). An unexpected, significant correspondence exists between the near-edge spectra for the Li 1s and N 1s initial states. We argue that both spectra are sampling essentially the same final DOS due to the combination of long core-hole lifetimes, long photoelectron lifetimes, and the fact that orbital angular momentum is the same for all relevant initial states. Such considerations may be generally applicable for low atomic number compounds.

Isotope and temperature effects in liquid water probed by x-ray absorption and resonant x-ray emission spectroscopy

High-resolution x-ray absorption and emission spectra of liquid water exhibit a strong isotope effect. Further, the emission spectra show a splitting of the 1b1 emission line, a weak temperature effect, and a pronounced excitation-energy dependence. They can be described as a superposition of two independent contributions. By comparing with gas phase, ice, and NaOH/NaOD, we propose that the two components are governed by the initial state hydrogen bonding configuration and ultrafast dissociation on the time scale of the O 1s core hole decay.