Article | "China Science News" reporter Zhang Qingdan
On June 24, 2020, a manuscript on the issue of attosecond ionization of electrons in water was submitted to the Nature editorial department. The authors of the paper originally thought it would be accepted soon, but they were stuck in a long wait. The
paper went through three rounds of review, and the scientific research team’s responses to the review comments totaled 99 pages. Finally, on June 28 this year, the paper was accepted by Nature. Two weeks later, the paper was published online in accelerated preview. The
paper took more than 2 years from submission to publication. Gong Xiaochun, the first author of the paper and a researcher at East China Normal University, was deeply touched.
"Technology shocked everyone" when the results came out
Water is a familiar thing to most people, but in the eyes of scientific researchers, water is a colorful and magical material medium.
Water is liquid, and most of the water molecules used for research are isolated water molecules. The question of how water molecules evolve into liquid water has been explored experimentally and theoretically. Among them, it is quite challenging to directly observe how the electronic structure evolves experimentally, especially on the time scale of electron intrinsic motion.
It is the electrons that move faster than the nucleus , and it is also the electrons that determine the structure of matter, which means that the detection of the electronic structure of water is very critical. Some common static infrared spectroscopy measurements are of the slow scale femtosecond or even picosecond level. However, the measurement of the electron state at the moment of electron ionization is a blank field. Gong Xiaochun and the Swiss research team mainly explore this part of the content.
In addition, previous experiments have reported that there are huge differences in the electronic characteristics of single-molecule water and liquid water. What factors are responsible for this is a basic scientific issue that requires efforts to explain.
After overcoming many conceptual and methodological challenges, the scientific research team developed attosecond size-resolved cluster spectroscopy technology to observe attosecond electron dynamics within size-resolved water clusters and measure the sequentially increasing number of molecules. , the impact on the photoelectron ionization delay time of water clusters, the relevant experimental results were basically completed at the end of 2018. The attosecond size-resolved cluster spectroscopy technology was proposed in the
paper. How the relying laboratory was built from scratch into a cutting-edge laboratory. Picture provided by the interviewee
Paper Corresponding author , H. J. Wörner, professor of the Physical Chemistry Laboratory of ETH Zurich (ETH), when he introduced relevant results at a conference for the first time in 2019, he was immediately "astonished by his technology" ".
Their research results provide a new perspective on observing the evolution of electronic cluster structures, technically fill the gap in the field of cluster research, and provide the academic community with new technologies and methods to explore unknown areas.
However, in an interview with "China Science News ", Gong Xiaochun seemed very indifferent. Because in his heart, this matter has already come to an end.
"Others may think that the publication of this paper is very novel work. For me, it has been two years and many new explorations have been carried out." Gong Xiaochun said.
The review process was lengthy, slowing down the publication process.
All the research work was completed as early as 2019, plus theoretical and post-processing work. The final paper was submitted to Nature on June 24, 2020. At first, the scientific research team was full of confidence in the research results and thought they would be accepted soon. However, they fell into a long wait.
In the first round of peer review, reviewer 1 did not reply. Reviewer 2 supported the publication with both hands and said that the research results were "very surprising", while reviewer 3's opinions were thought-provoking.
"He initially doubted our experimental data analysis methods and theoretical methods. But we have been doing this for a long time and are already at the leading level in data measurement.We carefully responded to his experimental and theoretical questions, and dismissed the experimental questions he raised in the first round of responses. " Gong Xiaochun said.
Unexpectedly, this reviewer continued to think divergently around theoretical issues in the second round. "The theoretical issues he raised are ones that no one in this field has been able to answer and that everyone is working on solving. The problem exceeds the endurance of current theoretical calculations. "
sometimes waits for several months for reviewer 3's reply. "We answer the reviewer's questions within a month each time. After that, the waiting process is really difficult, and the mood is like riding a roller coaster. " Gong Xiaochun said.
Fortunately, starting from the second round, the editor of Nature saw that the questions raised by reviewer three were not objective. After carefully reading the review comments and the reply from the scientific research team, the editor of the journal After the second round of , a fourth reviewer was found.
Although the fourth reviewer wrote a long opinion - involving more than 30 issues, they were all small details, such as laser parameters and resolution. issues such as rate and analysis methods. He expressed his great appreciation for this research work and hoped that the scientific research team would expand its universality.
In Gong Xiaochun’s view, reviewer 4 indeed embodies the role of a reviewer. There is value.
"We guess that he should be an expert in water-related issues, because he has a thorough understanding of water localization or electron delocalization, so he knows that our experimental results are indeed correct. He pointed out that we should clearly show the research highlights at the beginning. "Gong Xiaochun said.
reviewer 4's objective and impartial analysis won the editor's trust. The scientific research team "carefully refined" the paper many times based on the reviewers' opinions, and the paper was finally published by Nature on June 28 this year. Accepted.
The scientific research team’s responses to all review comments totaled 99 pages. Gong Xiaochun joked, “It’s enough to publish a book! "They chose to publish their replies publicly and attached them to the paper.
After three rounds of "tribulations", everyone was full of expectations and excitement at the beginning, and then gradually wore away. Gong Xiaochun was also in this ordeal. After practicing the "Buddhist system", I can deal with anything in the future.
Participated in setting up the laboratory twice.
Photo provided by Gong Xiaochun. Like many people, Gong Xiaochun has been a scientist since he was a child. .
After graduating from the undergraduate program in 2012, Gong Xiaochun was recommended to East China Normal University, where he built a laboratory with Professor Wu Jian who had just returned to China. He set up instruments, conducted experiments, analyzed data, and studied papers... He gradually found a way to work in scientific research. Rhythm and fun.
In the past two years, he followed his mentor to build a molecular multi-dimensional momentum precision coincidence measurement experimental system, which involved ultra-high vacuum technology, ultrasonic molecular beam source, time-of-flight spectrometer, electron-ion coincidence detection, data collection, etc. A complex technology. Based on this experimental system, he combined the femtosecond laser pulses with precise control in the time and frequency domain to carry out experimental research on ultrafast behavior measurement and control of molecules, and achieved fruitful results.
Gong Xiaochun has always been obsessed with ETH. I have special respect for professors H. J. Wörner and U. Keller, both of whom are top experts in the field of attoseconds. During his doctoral studies, Gong Xiaochun went abroad for exchanges and exchanges at Vienna University of Technology in 2015. At that time, he sent an email to the two professors to express his wish to visit the laboratory and finally got his wish.
After graduating as a doctoral student, Gong Xiaochun got the qualification to stay in the school again by chance and got in touch with H. J. Wörner as a postdoctoral fellow. I work in the Department of Physical Chemistry at ETH.
"H. J. Wörner's research in the field of attoseconds happened to be something I did not get involved in during my PhD, and my research in coincidence measurements was exactly what he lacked. So the two of us hit it off immediately, so we could complement each other's strengths and open up new areas. "Gong Xiaochun said.
The first step in cooperation is to build a laboratory.Gong Xiaochun recalled that H. J. Wörner gave him a very empty laboratory at that time, with only a few tables and a bunch of discarded items. He "started from scratch" from here, studying day and night and working seven days a week.
"When I was building the laboratory, ETH Professor Hans Jakob gave me great support and had the highest priority. As long as I needed it, he would meet my needs as soon as possible and provide guidance. So it only took me half a year. A large amount of money was invested in building a laboratory there," Gong Xiaochun said.
When H. J. Wörner went out to give a report with this result, other colleagues were amazed that a laboratory had popped up within half a year, and said that the result simply "fell from the sky." H. J. Wörne said happily, "Everything is about meeting the right person at the right time."
Gong Xiaochun participated in the two experiences of building a laboratory from beginning to end, which made him capable in all aspects. Get promoted quickly. At the beginning of 2019, Gong Xiaochun returned to East China Normal University to teach. He is now a doctoral supervisor and was selected for the National Science Fund for Outstanding Youth last year.
However, Gong Xiaochun didn't think he was that outstanding. He said that he is just an ordinary member of the scientific research team, and he just likes to immerse himself in experiments and explore the world of science.
"The publication of this paper is a thing of the past. I just want to focus on the future. There are still too many unknown areas waiting for me to explore. I will make more and better results in the future. This is the key point." Gong Xiao Spring said.
Reference link:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05039-8
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