Timing Ultrafast Charge Transfer via Fano Interference beyond the Core-Hole Clock

Ji-Cai Liu; Nicolas Velasquez; Victor Kimberg; Sayantan Sarkar; Oksana Travnikova; Iyas Ismail; Renaud Guillemin; Man Zhang; Pavel Krasnov; Marcella Iannuzzi; Michael Odelius; Ralph Püttner; Maria Novella Piancastelli; Marc Simon; Faris Gel’mukhanov; Tatiana Marchenko

doi:10.1103/h6h9-j83r

Timing Ultrafast Charge Transfer via Fano Interference beyond the Core-Hole Clock

Ji-Cai Liu ^1,*, Nicolas Velasquez ^2,*,†, Victor Kimberg ³, Sayantan Sarkar ², Oksana Travnikova ^2,4, Iyas Ismail ^2,4, Renaud Guillemin ^2,4, Man Zhang¹, Pavel Krasnov ^5,6 et al.

Marcella Iannuzzi ⁷, Michael Odelius ⁸, Ralph Püttner ⁹, Maria Novella Piancastelli ², Marc Simon ^2,4, Faris Gel’mukhanov ^3,‡, and Tatiana Marchenko ^2,4,§

¹School of Mathematics and Physics, North China Electric Power University, 102206 Beijing, China
²Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Chimie Physique-Matière et Rayonnement, LCPMR, F-75005 Paris Cedex 05, France
³Department of Theoretical Chemistry and Biology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
⁴Synchrotron Soleil, L’Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, F-91192 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁵Federal Siberian Research Clinical Centre under the Federal Medical Biological Agency, 660037, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
⁶International Research Center of Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemistry–IRC SQC, Siberian Federal University, 660041, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
⁷Department of Chemistry, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland
⁸Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Center, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
⁹Fachbereich Physik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

^*These authors contributed equally to this work.
^†Present address: Molecular Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
^‡Contact author: faris@kth.se
^§Contact author: tatiana.marchenko@sorbonne-universite.fr

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 053202 – Published 28 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/h6h9-j83r

Abstract

Ultrafast charge transfer (CT) lies at the heart of molecular and electronic functionality. We develop a Fano-based core-hole clock (FCHC) method that captures coherent coupling between localized excitons and the directly populated delocalized CT continua in resonant Auger scattering. Applied to sulfur $K L L$ Auger spectra of a conductive organic polymer, FCHC reveals clear Fano interference and a CT time of $27 \pm 1.8 fs$ , demonstrating that the conventional core-hole clock model underestimates the CT dynamics timescale. We establish FCHC as a robust method for probing ultrafast CT in complex molecular systems.

Physical Review Letters

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Timing Ultrafast Charge Transfer via Fano Interference beyond the Core-Hole Clock

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Timing Ultrafast Charge Transfer via Fano Interference beyond the Core-Hole Clock

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