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2018 (English)In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, ISSN 0027-8424, E-ISSN 1091-6490, Vol. 115, no 22, p. 5652-5657Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
X-ray Free-Electron Lasers have opened the door to a new era in structural biology, enabling imaging of biomolecules and dynamics that were impossible to access with conventional methods. A vast majority of imaging experiments, including Serial Femtosecond Crystallography, use a liquid jet to deliver the sample into the interaction region. We have observed structural changes in the carrying water during X-ray exposure, showing how it transforms from the liquid phase to a plasma. This ultrafast phase transition observed in water provides evidence that any biological structure exposed to these X-ray pulses is destroyed during the X-ray exposure.The bright ultrafast pulses of X-ray Free-Electron Lasers allow investigation into the structure of matter under extreme conditions. We have used single pulses to ionize and probe water as it undergoes a phase transition from liquid to plasma. We report changes in the structure of liquid water on a femtosecond time scale when irradiated by single 6.86 keV X-ray pulses of more than 106 J/cm2. These observations are supported by simulations based on molecular dynamics and plasma dynamics of a water system that is rapidly ionized and driven out of equilibrium. This exotic ionic and disordered state with the density of a liquid is suggested to be structurally different from a neutral thermally disordered state.
National Category
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-294554 (URN)10.1073/pnas.1711220115 (DOI)000433283700046 ()29760050 (PubMedID)
Funder
Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research Swedish Research Council, 2013-3940The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT)Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC)Carl Tryggers foundation
Note
De två första författarna delar förstaförfattarskapet
2016-05-242016-05-242018-08-20Bibliographically approved