We report on the coherence properties and characteristics of the split-and-delay unit at the Materials Imaging and Dynamics instrument of the European XFEL under seeded-beam conditions. Our investigation focuses on the speckle contrast extracted from the scattering patterns from static scatterers and pulse splitting characteristics. Seeded-beam operation enabled a high throughput of the split-and-delay unit. We highlight the invaluable potential of the split-and-delay unit for experimental investigations for enhancing our understanding of ultrafast phenomena in molecular liquids, such as water and aqueous solutions.

Recent experiments and theoretical studies strongly indicate that water exhibits a liquid-liquid phase transition (LLPT) in the supercooled domain. An open question is how the LLPT of water can affect the properties of aqueous solutions. Here, we study the structural and thermodynamic properties of supercooled glycerol-water microdroplets at dilute conditions (χg = 3.2% glycerol mole fraction). The combination of rapid evaporative cooling with femtosecond X-ray scattering allows us to outrun crystallization and gain access to the deeply supercooled regime down to T = 229.3 K. We find that the density fluctuations of the glycerol-water solution or, equivalently, its isothermal compressibility, κT, increases upon cooling. This is confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations, which indicate that the presence of glycerol shifts the temperature of maximum κT from T = 230 K in pure water down to T = 223 K in the solution. Our findings elucidate the interplay between the complex behavior of water, including its LLPT, and the properties of aqueous solutions at low temperatures, which can have practical consequences in cryogenic biological applications and cryopreservation techniques.

Hydrated proteins undergo a transition in the deeplysupercooledregime, which is attributed to rapid changes in hydration water andprotein structural dynamics. Here, we investigate the nanoscale stress-relaxationin hydrated lysozyme proteins stimulated and probed by X-ray PhotonCorrelation Spectroscopy (XPCS). This approach allows us to accessthe nanoscale dynamics in the deeply supercooled regime (T = 180 K), which is typically not accessible through equilibriummethods. The observed stimulated dynamic response is attributed tocollective stress-relaxation as the system transitions froma jammed granular state to an elastically driven regime. The relaxationtime constants exhibit Arrhenius temperature dependence upon coolingwith a minimum in the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts exponentat T = 227 K. The observed minimum is attributedto an increase in dynamical heterogeneity, which coincides with enhancedfluctuations observed in the two-time correlation functions and amaximum in the dynamic susceptibility quantified by the normalizedvariance chi( T ). The amplification offluctuations is consistent with previous studies of hydrated proteins,which indicate the key role of density and enthalpy fluctuations inhydration water. Our study provides new insights into X-ray stimulatedstress-relaxation and the underlying mechanisms behind spatiotemporalfluctuations in biological granular materials.

Studying protein interactions at low temperatures hasimportantimplications for optimizing cryostorage processes of biological tissue,food, and protein-based drugs. One of the major issues is relatedto the formation of ice nanocrystals, which can occur even in thepresence of cryoprotectants and can lead to protein denaturation.The presence of ice nanocrystals in protein solutions poses severalchallenges since, contrary to microscopic ice crystals, they can bedifficult to resolve and can complicate the interpretation of experimentaldata. Here, using a combination of small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering(SAXS and WAXS), we investigate the structural evolution of concentratedlysozyme solutions in a cryoprotected glycerol-water mixturefrom room temperature (T = 300 K) down to cryogenictemperatures (T = 195 K). Upon cooling, we observea transition near the melting temperature of the solution (T & AP; 245 K), which manifests both in the temperaturedependence of the scattering intensity peak position reflecting protein-proteinlength scales (SAXS) and the interatomic distances within the solvent(WAXS). Upon thermal cycling, a hysteresis is observed in the scatteringintensity, which is attributed to the formation of nanocrystallitesin the order of 10 nm. The experimental data are well described bythe two-Yukawa model, which indicates temperature-dependent changesin the short-range attraction of the protein-protein interactionpotential. Our results demonstrate that the nanocrystal growth yieldseffectively stronger protein-protein attraction and influencesthe protein pair distribution function beyond the first coordinationshell.

The liquid-liquid critical point hypothesis suggests that liquid water exists in two liquid states with different local structures, so-called high- and low-density liquid (HDL, LDL). At ambient pressure water locally fluctuates between these two states, with the fluctuations becoming more pronounced as the liquid is supercooled. In this thesis, we explore the role of molecular heterogeneity in the structural dynamics of aqueous solutions, specifically investigating the interplay of different solutes in water with the hypothesized HDL-LDL fluctuations. In our experimental approach, we utilize coherent light and X-ray scattering techniques, including small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS, WAXS), as well as correlation methods, such as dynamic light scattering (DLS) and X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS), that enable us to probe structural dynamics at a broad range of length and time scales. 

Using DLS, we measure the diffusive dynamic behaviour of differently sized nanomolecular probes in supercooled water, finding that it is effectively similar and independent of probe size down to molecular scales of ≈1 nm. In contrast to single water molecules, these probes experience a similar dynamic environment, which coincides with the bulk viscosity. These results could suggest that anomalous influence from the hypothesized water fluctuations becomes apparent first on sub-nm length scales. Furthermore, we explore how the presence of small polar-organic solutes modulates the water phase diagram, utilizing glycerol-water solutions as a model system. By outrunning freezing with the rapid evaporative cooling technique, combined with ultrafast X-ray scattering at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), we are able to probe the liquid structure in deeply supercooled dilute glycerol-water solutions. Our findings indicate the existence of HDL- and LDL-like fluctuations upon supercooling, with a Widom line shifted to slightly lower temperatures compared to pure water. Further experiments on deeply supercooled glycerol-water solutions at intermediate glycerol concentrations, combining WAXS and SAXS/XPCS, provide additional insights. These results reveal a first-order-like liquid-liquid transition involving discontinuous changes in the inter-atomic liquid structure and nanoscale liquid dynamics, which precedes ice crystallization. 

Lastly, with the aim of developing powerful tools for resolving dynamics within spatially heterogeneous systems, including aqueous solutions, we combine the spatial resolution of nanofocused coherent X-ray beams with dynamic measurements by XPCS. Here, we successfully demonstrate a first proof-of-concept experiment of so-called nanofocused XPCS at MAX IV synchrotron radiation facility. In future experiments, we plan to go beyond standard XPCS at synchrotrons, towards accessing ultrafast atomic-scale liquid dynamics by X-ray speckle visibility spectroscopy (XSVS) at XFELs.

Here, we demonstrate an experimental proof of concept for nanofocused x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy, a technique sensitive to nanoscale fluctuations present in a broad range of systems. The experiment, performed at the NanoMAX beamline at MAX IV, uses a novel event-based x-ray detector to capture nanoparticle structural dynamics with microsecond resolution. By varying the nanobeam size from σ=88 nm to σ=2.5μm, we quantify the effect of the nanofocus on the small-angle scattering lineshape and on the diffusion coefficients obtained from nano-XPCS. We observe that the use of nanobeams leads to a multifold increase in speckle contrast, which greatly improves the experimental signal-to-noise ratio, quantified from the two-time intensity correlation functions. We conclude that it is possible to account for influence of the high beam divergence on the lineshape and measured dynamics by including a convolution with the nanobeam profile in the model.

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) with megahertz repetition rate can provide novel insights into structural dynamics of biological macromolecule solutions. However, very high dose rates can lead to beam-induced dynamics and structural changes due to radiation damage. Here, we probe the dynamics of dense antibody protein (Ig-PEG) solutions using megahertz X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (MHz-XPCS) at the European XFEL. By varying the total dose and dose rate, we identify a regime for measuring the motion of proteins in their first coordination shell, quantify XFEL-induced effects such as driven motion, and map out the extent of agglomeration dynamics. The results indicate that for average dose rates below 1.06 kGy μs⁻¹ in a time window up to 10 μs, it is possible to capture the protein dynamics before the onset of beam induced aggregation. We refer to this approach as correlation before aggregation and demonstrate that MHz-XPCS bridges an important spatio-temporal gap in measurement techniques for biological samples.

The breakdown of Stokes–Einstein relation in liquid water is one of the many anomalies that take place upon cooling and indicates the decoupling of diffusion and viscosity. It is hypothesized that these anomalies manifest due to the appearance of nanometer-scale spatial fluctuations, which become increasingly pronounced in the supercooled regime. Here, we explore the validity of the Stokes–Einstein relation in supercooled water using nanomolecular probes. We capture the diffusive dynamics of the probes using dynamic light scattering and target dynamics at different length scales by varying the probe size, from ≈100 nm silica spheres to molecular-sized polyhydroxylated fullerenes (≈1 nm). We find that all the studied probes, independent of size, display similar diffusive dynamics with an Arrhenius activation energy of ≈23 kJ mol⁻¹. Analysis of the diffusion coefficient further indicates that the probes, independent of their size, experience similar dynamic environment, which coincides with the macroscopic viscosity, while single water molecules effectively experience a comparatively lower viscosity. Finally, we conclude that our results indicate that the Stokes–Einstein relation is preserved for diffusion of probes in supercooled water T ≥ 260 K with size as small as ≈1 nm.

Understanding the mechanism responsible for the protein low-temperature crossover observed at T approximate to 220 K can help us improve current cryopreservation technologies. This crossover is associated with changes in the dynamics of the system, such as in the mean-squared displacement, whereas experimental evidence of structural changes is sparse. Here we investigate hydrated lysozyme proteins by using a combination of wide-angle X-ray scattering and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Experimentally we suppress crystallization by accurate control of the protein hydration level, which allows access to temperatures down to T = 175 K. The experimental data indicate that the scattering intensity peak at Q = 1.54 angstrom(-1), attributed to interatomic distances, exhibits temperature-dependent changes upon cooling. In the MD simulations it is possible to decompose the water and protein contributions and we observe that, while the protein component is nearly temperature independent, the hydration water peak shifts in a fashion similar to that of bulk water. The observed trends are analysed by using the water-water and water-protein radial distribution functions, which indicate changes in the local probability density of hydration water.

It is proposed that a liquid-liquid transition (LLT), related to the hypothesized transition between high- and low-density liquids (HDL, LDL) in pure water, also exists in supercooled aqueous mixtures. However, experimental observations of the LLT in the supercooled solution is often complicated by the overlap with freezing. Here, we conducted an experiment probing the hypothesized LLT in deeply supercooled 16.5 mol% glycerol-water solution, combining X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS), ultra small-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). This approach allows us to capture simultaneous, discontinuous structural and dynamic changes within the supercooled liquid following quenching to cryogenic temperatures (172-182 K). We observe changes in the inter-atomic liquid structure (from WAXS) as well as in the nanoscale structure and dynamics (from USAXS/XPCS), resembling a first-order LLT between HDL-like to LDL-like liquid. Importantly, we find that the LLT precedes the onset of ice crystalliization, which we can distinguish based on the advent of ice bragg peaks in WAXS. In addition, analysis of the two-time correlation (TTC) function from XPCS enables us to follow the dynamics during the LLT, which indicates super-diffusive ballistic-like motion and a gradual slowdown towards an arrested state upon freezing, consistent with an LLT via spinodal decomposition. We conclude that these results indicate the existence of a first-order LLT in supercooled glycerol-water solutions at intermediate glycerol concentrations, similar to that hypothesized for pure water at elevated pressures.