Electron movements in liquid measured in super-slow motion

The scientists inject water from above into the analysis chamber, where it forms a short microjet that meets a laser beam. (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Inga Jordan) - Electrons are able to move within molecules, for example when they are excited from outside or in the course of a chemical reaction. For the first time, scientists have now succeeded in studying the first few dozen attoseconds of this electron movement in a liquid. To understand how chemical reactions begin, chemists have been using super-slow motion experiments for years to study the very first moments of a reaction. These days, measurements with a resolution of a few dozen attoseconds are possible. An attosecond is 1x10^-18 of a second, i.e. a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second. "In these first few dozen attoseconds of a reaction, you can already observe how electrons shift within molecules," explains Hans Jakob Wörner, Professor at the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry at ETH Zurich.