Research field
Femtochemistry
Femtochemistry captures chemical reactions in real time at the femtosecond timescale—the timescale of molecular bond breaking and formation. Pioneered by Ahmed Zewail with ultrafast laser spectroscopy, the field has expanded to attosecond science, probing electron dynamics within individual atomic shells. X-ray free electron lasers like the European XFEL enable serial femtosecond crystallography, capturing protein structural changes during catalysis in molecular movies. Ultrafast spectroscopy is revealing the quantum coherence phenomena underlying photosynthetic energy transfer, vision, and singlet fission for solar cells. Femtochemistry underpins rational design of photochemical reactions in industrial and pharmaceutical synthesis.
Top institutions
Caltech (Zewail Lab legacy)
Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
DESY Hamburg
ETH Zürich
Subfields
Key technologies
Ultrafast Laser Pulses
Pump-Probe Spectroscopy
Free Electron Lasers
Transient Absorption
Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction
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