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Start date: 2010 × Subject: Free electron lasers × WGL Institute: MBI ×

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
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    Ultrafast Structural Changes in Chiral Molecules Measured with Free-Electron Lasers
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2020) Schmidt, P.; Music, V.; Hartmann, G.; Boll, R.; Erk, B.; Bari, S.; Allum, F.; Baumann, T.M.; Brenner, G.; Brouard, M.; Burt, M.; Coffee, R.; Dörner, S.; Galler, A.; Grychtol, P.; Heathcote, D.; Inhester, L.; Kazemi, M.; Larsson, M.; Li, Z.; Lutmann, A.; Manschwetus, B.; Marder, L.; Mason, R.; Moeller, S.; Osipov, T.; Otto, H.; Passow, C.; Rolles, D.; Rupprecht, P.; Schubert, K.; Schwob, L.; Thomas, R.; Vallance, C.; Von Korff Schmising, C.; Wagner, R.; Walter, P.; Wolf, T.J.A.; Zhaunerchyk, V.; Meyer, M.; Ehresmann, A.; Knie, A.; Demekhin, P.V.; Ilchen, M.
    (X-ray) free-electron lasers are employed to site specifically interrogate atomic fragments during ultra-fast photolysis of chiral molecules via time-resolved photoelectron circular dichroism. © 2020 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.
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    Photodissociation of aligned CH3I and C6H3F2I molecules probed with time-resolved Coulomb explosion imaging by site-selective extreme ultraviolet ionization
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publishing LLC, 2018) Amini, Kasra; Savelyev, Evgeny; Brauße, Felix; Berrah, Nora; Bomme, Cédric; Brouard, Mark; Burt, Michael; Christensen, Lauge; Düsterer, Stefan; Erk, Benjamin; Höppner, Hauke; Kierspel, Thomas; Krecinic, Faruk; Lauer, Alexandra; Lee, Jason W. L.; Müller, Maria; Müller, Erland; Mullins, Terence; Redlin, Harald; Schirmel, Nora; Thøgersen, Jan; Techert, Simone; Toleikis, Sven; Treusch, Rolf; Trippel, Sebastian; Ulmer, Anatoli; Vallance, Claire; Wiese, Joss; Johnsson, Per; Küpper, Jochen; Rudenko, Artem; Rouzée, Arnaud; Stapelfeldt, Henrik; Rolles, Daniel; Boll, Rebecca
    We explore time-resolved Coulomb explosion induced by intense, extreme ultraviolet (XUV) femtosecond pulses from a free-electron laser as a method to image photo-induced molecular dynamics in two molecules, iodomethane and 2,6-difluoroiodobenzene. At an excitation wavelength of 267 nm, the dominant reaction pathway in both molecules is neutral dissociation via cleavage of the carbon-iodine bond. This allows investigating the influence of the molecular environment on the absorption of an intense, femtosecond XUV pulse and the subsequent Coulomb explosion process. We find that the XUV probe pulse induces local inner-shell ionization of atomic iodine in dissociating iodomethane, in contrast to non-selective ionization of all photofragments in difluoroiodobenzene. The results reveal evidence of electron transfer from methyl and phenyl moieties to a multiply charged iodine ion. In addition, indications for ultrafast charge rearrangement on the phenyl radical are found, suggesting that time-resolved Coulomb explosion imaging is sensitive to the localization of charge in extended molecules.
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    Transient magnetic gratings on the nanometer scale
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publishing LLC, 2020) Weder, D.; von Korff Schmising, C.; Günther, C.M.; Schneider, M.; Engel, D.; Hessing, P.; Strüber, C.; Weigand, M.; Vodungbo, B.; Jal, E.; Liu, X.; Merhe, A.; Pedersoli, E.; Capotondi, F.; Lüning, J.; Pfau, B.; Eisebitt, S.
    Laser-driven non-local electron dynamics in ultrathin magnetic samples on a sub-10 nm length scale is a key process in ultrafast magnetism. However, the experimental access has been challenging due to the nanoscopic and femtosecond nature of such transport processes. Here, we present a scattering-based experiment relying on a laser-induced electro- and magneto-optical grating in a Co/Pd ferromagnetic multilayer as a new technique to investigate non-local magnetization dynamics on nanometer length and femtosecond timescales. We induce a spatially modulated excitation pattern using tailored Al near-field masks with varying periodicities on a nanometer length scale and measure the first four diffraction orders in an x-ray scattering experiment with magnetic circular dichroism contrast at the free-electron laser facility FERMI, Trieste. The design of the periodic excitation mask leads to a strongly enhanced and characteristic transient scattering response allowing for sub-wavelength in-plane sensitivity for magnetic structures. In conjunction with scattering simulations, the experiment allows us to infer that a potential ultrafast lateral expansion of the initially excited regions of the magnetic film mediated by hot-electron transport and spin transport remains confined to below three nanometers.
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    Three-Dimensional Shapes of Spinning Helium Nanodroplets
    (College Park, Md. : APS, 2018) Langbehn, Bruno; Sander, Katharina; Ovcharenko, Yevheniy; Peltz, Christian; Clark, Andrew; Coreno, Marcello; Cucini, Riccardo; Drabbels, Marcel; Finetti, Paola; Di Fraia, Michele; Giannessi, Luca; Grazioli, Cesare; Iablonskyi, Denys; LaForge, Aaron C.; Nishiyama, Toshiyuki; Oliver Álvarez de Lara, Verónica; Piseri, Paolo; Plekan, Oksana; Ueda, Kiyoshi; Zimmermann, Julian; Prince, Kevin C.; Stienkemeier, Frank; Callegari, Carlo; Fennel, Thomas; Rupp, Daniela; Möller, Thomas
    A significant fraction of superfluid helium nanodroplets produced in a free-jet expansion has been observed to gain high angular momentum resulting in large centrifugal deformation. We measured single-shot diffraction patterns of individual rotating helium nanodroplets up to large scattering angles using intense extreme ultraviolet light pulses from the FERMI free-electron laser. Distinct asymmetric features in the wide-angle diffraction patterns enable the unique and systematic identification of the three-dimensional droplet shapes. The analysis of a large data set allows us to follow the evolution from axisymmetric oblate to triaxial prolate and two-lobed droplets. We find that the shapes of spinning superfluid helium droplets exhibit the same stages as classical rotating droplets while the previously reported metastable, oblate shapes of quantum droplets are not observed. Our three-dimensional analysis represents a valuable landmark for clarifying the interrelation between morphology and superfluidity on the nanometer scale.
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    Sub-15-fs X-ray pump and X-ray probe experiment for the study of ultrafast magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic alloys
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2021) Liu, Xuan; Merhe, Alaaeldine; Jal, Emmanuelle; Delaunay, Renaud; Jarrier, Romain; Chardonnet, Valentin; Hennes, Marcel; Chiuzbaian, Sorin G.; Légaré, Katherine; Hennecke, Martin; Radu, Ilie; Von Korff Schmising, Clemens; Grunewald, Særen; Kuhlmann, Marion; Lüning, Jan; Vodungbo, Boris
    In this paper, we present a new setup for the measurement of element-specific ultrafast magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films with a sub-15-fs time resolution. Our experiment relies on a split and delay approach which allows us to fully exploit the shortest X-rays pulses delivered by X-ray Free Electrons Lasers (close to the attosecond range), in an X-ray pump – X-ray probe geometry. The setup performance is demonstrated by measuring the ultrafast elemental response of Ni and Fe during demagnetization of ferromagnetic Ni and Ni80Fe20 (Permalloy) samples upon resonant excitation at the corresponding absorption edges. The transient demagnetization process is measured in both reflection and transmission geometry using, respectively, the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (T-MOKE) and the Faraday effect as probing mechanisms.
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    Compact intense extreme-ultraviolet source
    (Washington, DC : OSA, 2021) Major, Balázs; Ghafur, Omair; Kovács, Katalin; Varjú, Katalin; Tosa, Valer; Vrakking, Marc J. J.; Schütte, B.
    High-intensity laser pulses covering the ultraviolet to terahertz spectral regions are nowadays routinely generated in a large number of laboratories. In contrast, intense extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses have only been demonstrated using a small number of sources including free-electron laser facilities [1-3] and long high-harmonic generation (HHG) beamlines [4-9]. Here we demonstrate a concept for a compact intense XUV source based on HHG that is focused to an intensity of $2 \times 10^{14}$ W/cm$^2$, with a potential increase up to $10^{17}$ W/cm$^2$ in the future. Our approach uses tight focusing of the near-infrared (NIR) driving laser and minimizes the XUV virtual source size by generating harmonics several Rayleigh lengths away from the NIR focus. Accordingly, the XUV pulses can be refocused to a small beam waist radius of 600 nm, enabling the absorption of up to four XUV photons by a single Ar atom in a setup that fits on a modest (2 m) laser table. Our concept represents a straightforward approach for the generation of intense XUV pulses in many laboratories, providing novel opportunities for XUV strong-field and nonlinear optics experiments, for XUV-pump XUV-probe spectroscopy and for the coherent diffractive imaging of nanoscale structures.
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    Experimental strategies for optical pump - Soft x-ray probe experiments at the LCLS
    (Bristol : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2014) McFarland, B.K.; Berrah, N.; Bostedt, C.; Bozek, J.; Bucksbaum, P.H.; Castagna, J.C.; Coffee, R.N.; Cryan, J.P.; Fang, L.; Farrell, J.P.; Feifel, R.; Gaffney, K.J.; Glownia, J.M.; Martinez, T.J.; Miyabe, S.; Mucke, M.; Murphy, B.; Natan, A.; Osipov, T.; Petrovic, V.S.; Schorb, S.; Schultz, T.; Spector, L.S.; Swiggers, M.; Tarantelli, F.; Tenney, I.; Wang, S.; White, J.L.; White, W.; Gühr, M.
    Free electron laser (FEL) based x-ray sources show great promise for use in ultrafast molecular studies due to the short pulse durations and site/element sensitivity in this spectral range. However, the self amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) process mostly used in FELs is intrinsically noisy resulting in highly fluctuating beam parameters. Additionally timing synchronization of optical and FEL sources adds delay jitter in pump-probe experiments. We show how we mitigate the effects of source noise for the case of ultrafast molecular spectroscopy of the nucleobase thymine. Using binning and resorting techniques allows us to increase time and spectral resolution. In addition, choosing observables independent of noisy beam parameters enhances the signal fidelity.
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    Finding the semantic similarity in single-particle diffraction images using self-supervised contrastive projection learning
    (London : Nature Publ. Group, 2023) Zimmermann, Julian; Beguet, Fabien; Guthruf, Daniel; Langbehn, Bruno; Rupp, Daniela
    Single-shot coherent diffraction imaging of isolated nanosized particles has seen remarkable success in recent years, yielding in-situ measurements with ultra-high spatial and temporal resolution. The progress of high-repetition-rate sources for intense X-ray pulses has further enabled recording datasets containing millions of diffraction images, which are needed for the structure determination of specimens with greater structural variety and dynamic experiments. The size of the datasets, however, represents a monumental problem for their analysis. Here, we present an automatized approach for finding semantic similarities in coherent diffraction images without relying on human expert labeling. By introducing the concept of projection learning, we extend self-supervised contrastive learning to the context of coherent diffraction imaging and achieve a dimensionality reduction producing semantically meaningful embeddings that align with physical intuition. The method yields substantial improvements compared to previous approaches, paving the way toward real-time and large-scale analysis of coherent diffraction experiments at X-ray free-electron lasers.
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    THz streak camera performance for single-shot characterization of XUV pulses with complex temporal structures
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2020) Oelze, Tim; Kulyk, Olena; Schütte, Bernd; Frühling, Ulrike; Klimešová, Eva; Jagielski, Bartholomäus; Dittrich, Laura; Drescher, Markus; Pan, Rui; Stojanovic, Nikola; Polovinkin, Vitaly; Khakurel, Krishna P.; Muehlig, Kerstin; Bermudez Macias, Ivette J.; Düsterer, Stefan; Faatz, Bart; Andreasson, Jakob; Wieland, Marek; Krikunova, Maria
    The THz-field-driven streak camera has proven to be a powerful diagnostic-technique that enables the shot-to-shot characterization of the duration and the arrival time jitter of free electron laser (FEL) pulses. Here we investigate the performance of three computational approaches capable to determine the duration of FEL pulses with complex temporal structures from single-shot measurements of up to three simultaneously recorded spectra. We use numerically simulated FEL pulses in order to validate the accuracy of the pulse length retrieval in average as well as in a single-shot mode. We discuss requirements for the THz field strength in order to achieve reliable results and compare our numerical study with the analysis of experimental data that were obtained at the FEL in Hamburg - FLASH. © 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
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    Toward ultrafast magnetic depth profiling using time-resolved x-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publishing LLC, 2021) Chardonnet, Valentin; Hennes, Marcel; Jarrier, Romain; Delaunay, Renaud; Jaouen, Nicolas; Kuhlmann, Marion; Ekanayake, Nagitha; Léveillé, Cyril; von Korff Schmising, Clemens; Schick, Daniel; Yao, Kelvin; Liu, Xuan; Chiuzbăian, Gheorghe S.; Lüning, Jan; Vodungbo, Boris; Jal, Emmanuelle
    During the last two decades, a variety of models have been developed to explain the ultrafast quenching of magnetization following femtosecond optical excitation. These models can be classified into two broad categories, relying either on a local or a non-local transfer of angular momentum. The acquisition of the magnetic depth profiles with femtosecond resolution, using time-resolved x-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity, can distinguish local and non-local effects. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of this technique in a pump–probe geometry using a custom-built reflectometer at the FLASH2 free-electron laser (FEL). Although FLASH2 is limited to the production of photons with a fundamental wavelength of 4 nm (≃310 eV), we were able to probe close to the Fe L3 edge (706.8 eV) of a magnetic thin film employing the third harmonic of the FEL. Our approach allows us to extract structural and magnetic asymmetry signals revealing two dynamics on different time scales which underpin a non-homogeneous loss of magnetization and a significant dilation of 2 Å of the layer thickness followed by oscillations. Future analysis of the data will pave the way to a full quantitative description of the transient magnetic depth profile combining femtosecond with nanometer resolution, which will provide further insight into the microscopic mechanisms underlying ultrafast demagnetization.