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Physical chemistry

Molecular motion watched

Nature volume 496, pages 306–307 (2013)Cite this article

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A laser pulse can switch certain crystals from an insulating phase to a highly conducting phase. The ultrafast molecular motions that drive the transition have been directly observed using electron diffraction. See Letter p.343

Richard Feynman once said, “everything that living things do can be understood in terms of the jiggling and wiggling of atoms”. It is not only biological processes, however, that are driven by the microscopic structural rearrangements of atoms and molecules — this idea cuts through many scientific disciplines. The underlying motions are usually hidden from view, because even the most advanced conventional methods have been unable to directly observe the dynamic evolution of atomic (or molecular) structure on its shortest timescales. But on page 343 of this issue, Gao et al.1 report their use of ultrafast electron diffraction to provide a detailed look at one such hidden world. The authors have effectively 'watched' molecules rearrange in a crystal at the picosecond timescale on which chemical bonds are made and broken (1 picosecond (ps) is 10−12 seconds).

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Figure 1: Molecular motion of a phase switch.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bradley Siwick is in the Departments of Physics and Chemistry, and the Center for the Physics of Materials, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2K6 Canada.,

    Bradley Siwick

  2. Eric Collet is at the Institute of Physics, University of Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes, France.,

    Eric Collet

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  1. Bradley Siwick
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  2. Eric Collet
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Correspondence to Bradley Siwick or Eric Collet.

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Siwick, B., Collet, E. Molecular motion watched. Nature 496, 306–307 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/496306a

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