SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, 94720, USA.
ELI Beamlines, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Slovance 2, Prague, 18221, Czech Republic.
Nat Commun. 2018 Apr 10;9(1):1353. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03696-w.
The physics and chemistry of liquid solutions play a central role in science, and our understanding of life on Earth. Unfortunately, key tools for interrogating aqueous systems, such as infrared and soft X-ray spectroscopy, cannot readily be applied because of strong absorption in water. Here we use gas-dynamic forces to generate free-flowing, sub-micron, liquid sheets which are two orders of magnitude thinner than anything previously reported. Optical, infrared, and X-ray spectroscopies are used to characterize the sheets, which are found to be tunable in thickness from over 1 μm down to less than 20 nm, which corresponds to fewer than 100 water molecules thick. At this thickness, aqueous sheets can readily transmit photons across the spectrum, leading to potentially transformative applications in infrared, X-ray, electron spectroscopies and beyond. The ultrathin sheets are stable for days in vacuum, and we demonstrate their use at free-electron laser and synchrotron light sources.
液体溶液的物理和化学在科学中起着核心作用，并且我们对地球生命的理解也与之息息相关。不幸的是，由于水的强吸收，用于探测水相体系的关键工具，如红外和软 X 射线光谱学，无法轻易应用。在这里，我们使用气体动力来产生自由流动的亚微米级液膜，其厚度比以前报道的任何东西薄两个数量级。使用光学、红外和 X 射线光谱学来表征这些液膜，发现它们的厚度可以从超过 1μm 调节到小于 20nm，这对应于不到 100 个水分子的厚度。在这个厚度下，水溶液可以轻易地在整个光谱范围内传输光子，从而在红外、X 射线、电子光谱学等领域产生潜在的变革性应用。这些超薄的液膜在真空中可以稳定数天，我们展示了它们在自由电子激光和同步辐射光源中的应用。
