Charge Transfer Occurs in Just a Few Femtoseconds

Recent research has revealed that charge transfer, a fundamental process in chemistry and biology, can occur much faster than previously thought. The study, titled "Femtosecond Core-Level Charge Transfer," authored by Simon P. Neville, Martha Yaghoubi Jouybari, and Michael S. Schuurman, demonstrates that core-level charge transfer can happen on the order of a few femtoseconds, specifically within 5 femtoseconds after core-excitation.

Traditionally, it was believed that charge transfer would take tens to hundreds of femtoseconds due to the involvement of nuclear motion. However, this new research indicates that electronic coherences formed by non-adiabatic dynamics can drive rapid charge transfer. The study uses ethylene excited to its 1sπ* manifold as an example, showing that the transfer of core-electron density occurs almost instantaneously, challenging the long-held assumptions about the timescales of these processes.

The implications of this finding are significant. Understanding the speed of charge transfer can enhance our knowledge of various chemical reactions and biological processes, potentially leading to advancements in fields such as energy conversion and molecular electronics. The research highlights the breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, which has been a cornerstone in the study of molecular dynamics, suggesting that the interactions between electronic and nuclear motions are more complex than previously understood.

This study is available for further reading at arXiv: Femtosecond Core-Level Charge Transfer.