{"id":239587,"date":"2026-06-25T02:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T07:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/ultrafast-x-rays-allow-researchers-to-watch-how-molecules-rearrange-during-a-chemical-reaction-controlled-by-light"},"modified":"2026-06-25T02:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T07:23:14","slug":"ultrafast-x-rays-allow-researchers-to-watch-how-molecules-rearrange-during-a-chemical-reaction-controlled-by-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/ultrafast-x-rays-allow-researchers-to-watch-how-molecules-rearrange-during-a-chemical-reaction-controlled-by-light","title":{"rendered":"Ultrafast X-rays allow researchers to \u2018watch\u2019 how molecules rearrange during a chemical reaction controlled by light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/ultrafast-x-rays-allow-researchers-to-watch-how-molecules-rearrange-during-a-chemical-reaction-controlled-by-light2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since the 1980s, researchers have sought to use laser light to control chemical reactions relevant to photochemistry, catalysis and light-responsive materials. But this technique, known as coherent control, has a blind spot: There has been no way to directly see the molecules in these reactions as their structures rearrange.<\/p>\n<p>Now, researchers at the Department of Energy\u2019s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have imaged a coherently controlled chemical reaction for the first time. Their work, <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.aps.org\/pra\/abstract\/10.1103\/f5kj-bzx8\" target=\"_blank\">published in <i>Physical Review A<\/i><\/a>, uses ultrafast X-rays from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to show in real time how atoms move in a molecule that was excited and manipulated with laser light.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are many challenges with controlling chemical reactions, but seeing is believing,\u201d said study lead author Tom Hopper, assistant professor at the University of Central Florida who was a postdoctoral researcher at SLAC at the time of the study. \u201cIf you can see something directly, it opens up a new level of control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since the 1980s, researchers have sought to use laser light to control chemical reactions relevant to photochemistry, catalysis and light-responsive materials. But this technique, known as coherent control, has a blind spot: There has been no way to directly see the molecules in these reactions as their structures rearrange. Now, researchers at the Department of [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}