Attosecond spectroscopy of bio-chemically relevant molecules

Abstract

Summary. — Understanding the role of the electron dynamics in the photochemistry of bio-chemically relevant molecules is key to getting access to the fundamental physical processes leading to damage, mutation and, more generally, to the alteration of the fi nal biological functions. Sudden ionization of a large molecule has been proven to activate a sub-femtosecond charge fl ow throughout the molecular backbone, purely guided by electronic coherences, which could ultimately a ff ect the photochemical response of the molecule at later times. We can follow this ultrafast charge fl ow in realtime by exploiting the extreme time resolution provided by attosecond light sources. In this work recent advances in attosecond molecular physics are presented with particular focus on the investigation of bio-relevant