Related papers: Tracking the Electron Density Changes in Excited S…
A deep understanding of molecular photo-transformations is challenging because of the complex interaction between the configurations of electrons and nuclei. An initial optical excitation dissipates energy into electronic and structural…
X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism have long served as indispensable tools for probing the electronic and magnetic properties of transition-metal compounds with elemental selectivity. In recent years, the…
The pulse intensity from X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) can create extreme excitation densities in solids, entering the regime of non-linear X-ray-matter interactions. We show L3-edge absorption spectra of metallic nickel thin films with…
Many fundamental processes of structural changes at surfaces occur on a pico- or femtosecond time scale. In order to study such ultra-fast processes, we have combined modern surface science techniques with fs-laser pulses in a pump-probe…
Core level binding energies and absorption edges are at the heart of many experimental techniques concerned with element-specific structure, electronic structure, chemical reactivity, elementary excitations and magnetism. X-ray…
Exciting electrons in solids with intense light pulses offers the possibility of generating new states of matter through nonthermal means and controlling their macroscopic properties on femto- to picosecond timescales. One way to manipulate…
X-ray diffraction from molecules in the ground state produces an image of their charge density, and time-resolved X-ray diffraction can thus monitor the motion of the nuclei. However, the density change of excited valence electrons upon…
Free-electron laser hard X-ray light sources can provide high fluence, femtosecond pulses, enabling the time-resolved probing of structural dynamics and elementary relaxation processes in molecules. Traditional X-ray elastic scattering from…
Absorbing a focused, femtosecond X-ray pulse from a Free-Electron Laser (FEL) can lead to extreme electronic excitations in solids. This excitation drives changes of the electronic system over the course of the pulse duration and the…
Transient X-ray absorption techniques can measure ultrafast dynamics of the elemental edges in a material or multiple layer junction, giving them immense potential for deconvoluting concurrent processes. However, the interpretation of the…
Recent advancements in ultrashort and intense X-ray sources have enabled the utilisation of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) as a probing technique for monitoring photoinduced dynamics in molecular systems. To account for dynamic…
Advances in our ability to understand and utilize the world around us have always relied on the development of advanced tools for probing and manipulating materials properties. X-ray matter interactions played a critical role in the…
Proposals to determine biomolecular structures from diffraction experiments using femtosecond X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses involve a conflict between the incident brightness required to achieve diffraction-limited atomic…
Metals exhibit nonequilibrium electron and lattice subsystems at transient times following femtosecond laser excitation. In the past four decades, various optical spectroscopy and time-resolved diffraction methods have been used to study…
We demonstrate the potential of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) to advancethe understanding of complex plasma dynamics by allowing for the first time nanometer and femtosecond resolution at the same time in plasma diagnostics. Plasma…
X-ray photoelectron diffraction is a powerful tool for determining the structure of clean and adsorbate-covered surfaces. Extending the technique into the ultrafast time domain will open the door to studies as diverse as the direct…
The time evolution of the electron density and the resulting time dependence of X-ray diffraction peak intensity in a crystal irradiated by highly intense femtosecond pulses of an XFEL is investigated theoretically on the basis of rate…
The electronic and nuclear dynamics in methanol, following 156~nm photoexcitation, are investigated by combining a detailed analysis of time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy experiments with electronic structure calculations. The…
We show that time-resolved x-ray scattering from molecules prepared in a superposition of electronic states moving through an avoided crossing has new features not found in diffraction from the corresponding classical mixed state.…
The advent of ultrafast pulsed X-ray free-electron lasers with very high brightness has enabled the determination of transient molecular structures of small and medium-sized organic molecules in excited states and undergoing chemical…