Structural dynamics of chiral molecules at the time-scale of electron movement explored with free-electron lasers

There is a fundamental puzzle to life: why terrestrial biopolymers are predominantly composed of homo-chiral building blocks; the L-form of amino acids and the D-form of monosaccharides.

Understanding molecular chirality, apart from fundamental perspectives, is critical to, e.g., medicine and pharmacology.

The method of photoelectron circular dichroism (PECD) is distinct among other CD methods in that it provides a significantly stronger contrast between L- and D-forms.

The advent of ultrafast X-ray light sources, such as the European XFEL, opens the door for time-resolved X-ray PECD (TR-PECD), anticipated to both bring us closer to resolving the fundamental questions of chirality, and also advancing the field of structural biology in a new direction.

In this proposal we aim to realize a new instrumentation perspective for the SQS end-station at the European XFEL - the first second-generation superconducting XFEL - that will ultimately enable us to perform TR-PECD studies on gas-phase biomolecules at an unprecedentedly high level of accuracy.

The project is of four years in duration and initially involves instrumental and software development, with subsequent experimental studies using these new techniques.

These studies will begin with simple prototypical chiral molecules and increase in molecular complexity towards amino acids and peptides.

We have created a consortium of Swedish and German researchers with the expertise in the fields required for a successful project.