Identification of the decay pathway of photoexcited nucleobases

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental approach combining ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy, diffraction, and electron diffraction to identify the decay pathway of photoexcited uracil, aiming to verify theoretical models of its relaxation process.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental scheme that integrates multiple probing techniques to determine the decay pathway of photoexcited nucleobases, specifically uracil.

Findings

Demonstrates an approach to identify relaxation pathways of uracil

Proposes a method to test theoretical models of nucleobase decay

Integrates multiple ultrafast spectroscopic and diffraction techniques

Abstract

The identification of the decay pathway of the nucleobase uracil after being photoexcited by ultraviolet (UV) light has been a long standing problem. Various theoretical models have been proposed but yet to be verified. Here we propose an experimental scheme to test the theoretical models by a combination of ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction methods. Incorporating the signatures of multiple probing methods, we demonstrate an approach to identify the pathway of the geometric and electronic relaxation of the photoexcited uracil molecule.