Dynamics of Chemical Bonding EEL & FEELS

Your author decided to write this book about Dynamics of Chemical Bonding after receiving an email from Caltech sent to alumni interested in various research activities taking place on campus at the California Institute of Technology. This subject caught my attention since I am interested in expanding my knowledge about science topics that could have a large impact on technology of the 21st Century.

A technique called electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is useful for mapping the electronic structural changes that occur as molecules bond with each other. But it isn't fast enough to catch the action as it is happening—on the attosecond (one quintillionth of a second) or femtosecond (one quadrillionth of a second) timescale. By applying their 4D electron microscopy technique to EELS, Ahmed Zewail and his colleagues have revealed the dynamic structural changes in a sample of graphite as it is compressed to form a diamond. The technique, dubbed FEELS, offers resolution 10 orders of magnitude greater than the standard EELS method. In a paper describing the work that appears in the July 2010 issue of Science, they wrote the technique offers "the potential for examining the nature of charge density and chemical bonding in the course of physical/chemical or materials phase change.