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- Gopakumar, Geethanjali, 1992-, et al.
(författare)
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X-ray Induced Fragmentation of Protonated Cystine
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Protein structure determination using high-intensity X-ray sources induces damage in the protein. Disulfide bridges, formed between two cysteine amino acid residues stabilize the protein structure. Owing to the higher absorption cross-section of sulfur for X-ray photons, and a large number of electrons released from sulfur atoms, these disulfide bridges are hot spots for a higher level of noise in structural studies. But it is yet to be understood how exactly the damage occurs through the interaction of the disulfide bridges with photons. Here we study the fragmentation of protonated cystine in the gas phase, which is the dimer of cysteine, by irradiation with X-rays across the sulfur L-edge using an electrospray ionization source (ESI) in combination with an ion trap. This is complemented with the calculation of the sulfur NEXAFS spectrum on the level of Restricted Open-Shell Configuration Interaction (ROCIS) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations for molecular orbital visualization as well as Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations for the fragmentation of triply charged cystine ions. We have deduced a possible pathway of fragmentation upon excitation and ionization of S 2p electrons by combining the experiments and simulations. The disulfide bridge breaks for resonant excitation at lower energies but remains intact upon higher energy resonant excitation and upon ionization of S 2p. The larger fragments formed subsequently break into smaller fragments.
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| 2. |
- Sloboda, Tamara, et al.
(författare)
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Photovoltage Generation across Different Interfaces in a PbS QuantumDot Solar Cell Investigated by Time-Resolved PhotoelectronSpectroscopy
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Quantum dot solar cells have not yet achieved optimal device performances and to direct development there is thereforea need to understand the device function of present solar cell structures in more detail. Understanding where photovoltage isgenerated in a device and where energy losses occur is a key aspect of this. We have previously shown that time-resolved core levelphotoelectron spectroscopy can be used to follow the photovoltage rise and decay at a specific interface from pico- to microsecondtimescales. Here, we extend this study and investigate the photovoltage generation in different parts of a PbS quantum dot solar cellthrough sample design. We show that thick absorbing quantum dot layers are required for generating a high photovoltage at theinterface between n-type PbS quantum dots and p-type quantum dots. Furthermore, we show that the full photovoltage is only generatedwhen a gold contact is deposited on the quantum dots and that the presence of this contact also leads to significantly slowercharge recombination.
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| 3. |
- Sloboda, Tamara, et al.
(författare)
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Unravelling the ultrafast charge dynamics in PbS quantum dotsthrough resonant Auger mapping of the sulfur K-edge
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is a great fundamental interest in charge dynamics of PbS quantum dots, as they arepromising for application in photovoltaics and other optoelectronic devices. The ultrafastcharge transport is intriguing, offering insight into the mechanism of electron tunnelingprocesses within the material. In this study we investigated the charge transfer times of PbSquantum dots of different sizes and non-quantized PbS reference materials by comparing thepropensity of localized or delocalized decays of sulfur 1s core hole states excited by X-rays.We show that charge transfer times in PbS quantum dots decrease with excitation energy andare similar at high excitation energy for quantum dots and non-quantized PbS. However, atlow excitation energies a distinct difference in charge transfer time is observed with thefastest charge transfer in non-quantized PbS and the slowest in the smallest quantum dots.Our observations can be explained by iodide ligands on the quantum dots creating a barrierfor charge transfer, which reduces the probability of interparticle transfer at low excitationenergies. The probability of intraparticle charge transfer is limited by the density of availablestates which we describe according to a wavefunction in a quantum well model. The strongerquantum confinement effect in smaller PbS quantum dots is manifested as longer chargetransfer times relative to the larger quantum dots at low excitation energies.
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