Distinct transient structural rearrangement of ionized water revealed by XFEL X-ray pump X-ray probe experiment

Using X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) radiation to conduct an X-ray pump X-ray probe experiment, we studied strongly ionized water as part of our ongoing work on radiation damage. After irradiance with a pump pulse with a nominal fluence of ~5 × 10⁵ J/cm², we observed for pump-probe delays of 75 fs and longer an unexpected structural rearrangement, exhibiting a characteristic length scale of ~9 {A}. Simulations suggest that the experiment probes a superposition of ionized water in two distinct regimes. In the first, fluences expected at the X-ray focus create nearly completely ionized water, which as a result becomes effectively transparent to the probe. In the second regime, out of focus pump radiation produces O¹⁺ and O²⁺ ions, which rearrange due to Coulombic repulsion over 10s of fs. Importantly, structural changes in the low fluence regime have implications for the design of two-pulse X-ray experiments that aim to study unperturbed liquid samples. Our simulations account for two key observations in the experimental data: the decrease in ambient water signal and an increase in low-angle X-ray scattering. They cannot, however, account for the experimentally observed 9 {A} feature. A satisfactory account of this feature presents a new challenge for theory.