Publications by authors named "A Aquila"

Article Synopsis
  • The study uses 11.2 keV X-ray diffraction to observe the crystallization of supercooled liquid hydrogen below its melting point.
  • Researchers measured changes in the solid and liquid structures dynamically, allowing them to identify the lowest energy crystal forms and determine densities and temperatures.
  • Findings show evidence of Arrhenius-like growth kinetics in the stacking direction during the supercooling process.
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Dynamic digital radiography (DDR) is a high-resolution radiographic imaging technique using pulsed X-ray emission to acquire a multiframe cine-loop of the target anatomical area. The first DDR technology was orthostatic chest acquisitions, but new portable equipment that can be positioned at the patient's bedside was recently released, significantly expanding its potential applications, particularly in chest examination. It provides anatomical and functional information on the motion of different anatomical structures, such as the lungs, pleura, rib cage, and trachea.

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X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) deliver intense x-ray pulses that destroy the sample in a single shot by a Coulomb explosion. Experiments using XFEL pulse trains or the new generation of high-repetition rate XFELs require rapid sample replacement beyond those provided by the systems now used at low repletion-rate XFELs. We describe the development and characterization of a system based on a spinning disk to continuously deliver a solid sample into an XFEL interaction point at very high speeds.

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Supercooled water droplets are widely used to study supercooled water, ice nucleation and droplet freezing. Their freezing in the atmosphere affects the dynamics and climate feedback of clouds and can accelerate cloud freezing through secondary ice production. Droplet freezing occurs at several timescales and length scales and is sufficiently stochastic to make it unlikely that two frozen drops are identical.

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The photoisomerization reaction of a fluorescent protein chromophore occurs on the ultrafast timescale. The structural dynamics that result from femtosecond optical excitation have contributions from vibrational and electronic processes and from reaction dynamics that involve the crossing through a conical intersection. The creation and progression of the ultrafast structural dynamics strongly depends on optical and molecular parameters.

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