Events in physical chemistry.

Capturing the Fastest Charge and Spin Dynamics in Materials using High Harmonic Quantum Light Sources

X-ray science has undergone a revolution in the past decade. More than 50 years after the demonstration of the visible laser, it is finally possible to routinely generate laser-like beams spanning the extreme ultraviolet to the soft X-ray region. Large- and small-scale coherent X-ray sources, including high harmonic generation (HHG) and X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) have enabled a broad range of applications.

Quantization of light in the wave-packet basis; Applications in quantum optics and quantum communications

Abstract: We review the concepts of temporal modes (TMs) in quantum optics, highlighting Roy Glauber's crucial and historic contributions to their development, and their growing importance in quantum information science. TMs are orthogonal sets of wave packets that can be used to represent a multimode light field. They are temporal counterparts to transverse spatial modes of light and play analogous roles - decomposing multimode light into the most natural basis for isolating statistically independent degrees of freedom.

From Biomass Waste to Performance-Advantaged Polymers: Efficient Synthetic Routes to Lignin Valorization

Economic challenges continue to hamper the adoption of biobased polymers as alternatives to petroleum-based plastics.  Generally, renewable polymers are too expensive due to the inherent variability in biobased feedstocks and the significant separation steps required to make purified monomer streams.  Here, we demonstrate that materials with reproducible thermal and mechanical characteristics can be synthesized in a controlled and predictable manner from batches of monomers with complex and somewhat variable compositions, such as minimally processed bio-oils obtained from depolymerized lign

Using light to control electrons that, in turn, create new light

An electron that multiphoton ionizes in a gas is immediately subject to the light’s electric field that will control its short-term future.  As a result of this control, we can use a gas of atoms or molecules to produce intense VUV or soft X-ray beams by forcing the electron to recollide and recombine with its parent ion.  Since we can precisely control the infrared beam that creates the radiation, we can also synthesize attosecond soft X-ray pulses – pulses that are the shortest controlled events ever systematically produced (50-attoseconds).  Such pulses, when applied to materials, allow

Understanding Molecular Mechanisms of Biological Error Correction

One of the most fascinating features of biological systems is the ability to sustain an extraordinary high accuracy of all major cellular processes despite the stochastic nature of underlying chemical processes. It is widely believed that such low errors are the result of the error correcting mechanism known as a kinetic proofreading. However, there are contradicting views on the balance of speed and accuracy in biological processes.

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