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Advancements in light engineering have led to the creation of pulsed laser sources capable of delivering high-repetition-rate, high-power few-cycle laser pulses across a wide spectral range, enabling exploration of many fascinating nonlinear processes occurring in all states of matter. High-harmonic generation, one such process, which converts the low-frequency photons of the driver laser field into soft x-rays, has revolutionized atomic, molecular, and optical physics, leading to progress in attosecond science and ultrafast optoelectronics. The Extreme Light Infrastructure, Attosecond Light Pulse Source (ELI ALPS) facility pioneers state-of-the-art tools for research in these areas. This paper outlines the design rationale, capabilities, and applications of plasma- and gas-based high-repetition-rate (1 kHz to 100 kHz) attosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) beamlines developed at ELI ALPS, highlighting their potential for advancing various research fields.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons play an important role in interstellar chemistry, where interaction with high energy photons can induce ionization and fragmentation reactions. Here the authors, with XUV-IR pump-probe experiments, investigate the ultrafast photoinduced dynamics of fluorene, phenanthrene and pyrene, providing insight into their preferred reaction channels.

We study resonant two-photon ionization of helium atoms via the 1s3p, 1s4p and 1s5p1P1 states using the 15th harmonic of a titanium-sapphire laser for the excitation and a weak fraction of the laser field for the ionization. The phase of the photoelectron wavepackets is measured by an attosecond interferometric technique, using the 17th harmonic. We perform experiments with angular resolution using a velocity map imaging spectrometer and with high energy resolution using a magnetic bottle electron spectrometer. Our results are compared to calculations using the two-photon random phase approximation with exchange to account for electron correlation effects. We give an interpretation for the multiple π-rad phase jumps observed, both at and away from resonance, as well as their dependence on the emission angle.

We report on the use of extreme ultraviolet (XUV, 30.3 nm) radiation from the Free-electron LASer in Hamburg (FLASH) and visible (Vis, 405 nm) photons from an optical laser to investigate the relaxation and fragmentation dynamics of fluorene ions. The ultrashort laser pulses allow to resolve the molecular processes occurring on the femtosecond timescales. Fluorene is a prototypical small polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). Through their infrared emission signature, PAHs have been shown to be ubiquitous in the universe, and they are assumed to play an important role in the chemistry of the interstellar medium. Our experiments track the ionization and dissociative ionization products of fluorene through time-of-flight mass spectrometry and velocity-map imaging. Multiple processes involved in the formation of each of the fragment ions are disentangled through analysis of the ion images. The relaxation lifetimes of the excited fluorene monocation and dication obtained through the fragment formation channels are reported to be in the range of a few tens of femtoseconds to a few picoseconds.

In coherent control schemes, pathways connecting an initial and a final state can be independently controlled by manipulating the complex amplitudes of their transition matrix elements. For paths characterized by the absorption of multiple photons, these quantities depend on the magnitude and phase between the intermediate steps, and are expected to be strongly affected by the presence of resonances. We investigate the coherent control of the photoemission process in neon using a phase-controlled two-color extreme ultraviolet pulse with frequency in proximity of an excited energy state. Using helium as a reference, we show that the presence of such a resonance in neon modifies the amplitude and phase of the asymmetric emission of photoelectrons. Theoretical simulations based on perturbation theory are in fair agreement with the experimental observations.

We investigate the spatial characteristics of high-order harmonic radiation generated in argon and observe cross-like patterns in the far field. An analytical model describing harmonics from an astigmatic driving beam reveals that these patterns result from the order and generation position-dependent divergence of harmonics. Even small amounts of driving field astigmatism may result in cross-like patterns, coming from the superposition of individual harmonics with spatial profiles elongated in different directions. By correcting the aberrations using a deformable mirror, we show that fine-tuning the driving wavefront is essential for optimal spatial quality of the harmonics.

Understanding of photoionization dynamics, one of the fastest processes in nature, requires the characterization of all underlying ionization channels. Here the authors use an interferometry technique based on attosecond pulses to measure the phase and amplitude of the individual angular momentum channels in the photoionization of neon.

Adamantane, the smallest diamondoid molecule with a symmetrical cage, contains two distinct carbon sites, CH and CH2. The ionization/excitation of the molecule leads to the cage opening and strong structural reorganization. While theoretical predictions suggest that the carbon site CH primarily causes the cage opening, the role of the other CH2 site remains unclear. In this study, we used advanced experimental Auger electron–ion coincidence techniques and theoretical calculations to investigate the fragmentation dynamics of adamantane after resonant inner-shell photoexcitation. Our results demonstrate that some fragmentation channels exhibit site-sensitivity of the initial core–hole location, indicating that different carbon site excitations could lead to unique cage opening mechanisms.

Many applications of the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation obtained by high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in gases require a small focus area in order to enable attosecond pulses to reach a high intensity. Here, high-order harmonics generated in Ar with a multiterawatt laser system in a loose focusing geometry are focused to a few micrometers using two toroidal mirrors in a Wolter configuration with a high demagnification factor. Using a knife-edge measurement technique, we determine the position and size of the XUV foci as a function of harmonic order. We show that the focus properties vary with harmonic order and the generation conditions. Simulations, based on a classical description of the harmonic dipole phase and assuming that the individual harmonics can be described as Gaussian beams, reproduce the experimental behavior. We discuss how the generation geometry affects the intensity and duration of the focused attosecond pulses.

We present an investigation of the ultrafast dynamics of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon fluorene initiated by an intense femtosecond near-infrared laser pulse (810 nm) and probed by a weak visible pulse (405 nm). Using a multichannel detection scheme (mass spectra, electron and ion velocity-map imaging), we provide a full disentanglement of the complex dynamics of the vibronically excited parent molecule, its excited ionic states, and fragments. We observed various channels resulting from the strong-field ionization regime. In particular, we observed the formation of the unstable tetracation of fluorene, above-threshold ionization features in the photoelectron spectra, and evidence of ubiquitous secondary fragmentation. We produced a global fit of all observed time-dependent photoelectron and photoion channels. This global fit includes four parent ions extracted from the mass spectra, 15 kinetic-energy-resolved ionic fragments extracted from ion velocity map imaging, and five photoelectron channels obtained from electron velocity map imaging. The fit allowed for the extraction of 60 lifetimes of various metastable photoinduced intermediates.

Quantum entanglement between the degrees of freedom encountered in the classical world is challenging to observe due to the surrounding environment. To elucidate this issue, we investigate the entanglement generated over ultrafast timescales in a bipartite quantum system comprising two massive particles: a free-moving photoelectron, which expands to a mesoscopic length scale, and a light-dressed atomic ion, which represents a hybrid state of light and matter. Although the photoelectron spectra are measured classically, the entanglement allows us to reveal information about the dressed-state dynamics of the ion and the femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses delivered by a seeded free-electron laser. The observed generation of entanglement is interpreted using the time-dependent von Neumann entropy. Our results unveil the potential for using short-wavelength coherent light pulses from free-electron lasers to generate entangled photoelectron and ion systems for studying spooky action at a distance.

Wave packet interferometry with vacuum ultraviolet light has been used to probe a complex region of the electronic spectrum of molecular nitrogen, N2. Wave packets of Rydberg and valence states were excited by using double pulses of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV), free-electron-laser (FEL) light. These wave packets were composed of contributions from multiple electronic states with a moderate principal quantum number (n ∼ 4-9) and a range of vibrational and rotational quantum numbers. The phase relationship of the two FEL pulses varied in time, but as demonstrated previously, a shot-by-shot analysis allows the spectra to be sorted according to the phase between the two pulses. The wave packets were probed by angle-resolved photoionization using an infrared pulse with a variable delay after the pair of excitation pulses. The photoelectron branching fractions and angular distributions display oscillations that depend on both the time delays and the relative phases of the VUV pulses. The combination of frequency, time delay, and phase selection provides significant control over the ionization process and ultimately improves the ability to analyze and assign complex molecular spectra., (© 2024 Author(s). Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.)

Site-selective probing of iodine 4d orbitals at 13.1 nm was used to characterize the photolysis of CH2I2 and CH2BrI initiated at 202.5 nm. Time-dependent fragment ion momenta were recorded using Coulomb explosion imaging mass spectrometry and used to determine the structural dynamics of the dissociating molecules. Correlations between these fragment momenta, as well as the onset times of electron transfer reactions between them, indicate that each molecule can undergo neutral three-body photolysis. For CH2I2, the structural evolution of the neutral molecule was simultaneously characterized along the C-I and I-C-I coordinates, demonstrating the sensitivity of these measurements to nuclear motion along multiple degrees of freedom., (© 2023 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

High-order harmonic generation (HHG) provides scalable sources of coherent extreme ultraviolet radiation with pulse duration down to the attosecond time scale. Efficient HHG requires the constructive interplay between microscopic and macroscopic effects in the generation volume, which can be achieved over a large range of experimental parameters from the driving field properties to those of the generating medium. Here, we present a systematic study of the harmonic yield as a function of gas pressure and medium length. Two regimes for optimum yield are identified, supporting the predictions of a recently proposed analytical model. Our observations are independent on the focusing geometry and, to a large extent, on the pulse duration and laser intensity, providing a versatile approach to HHG optimization.

Adamantane, the smallest diamondoid molecule with a symmetrical cage, contains two distinct carbon sites, CH and CH2. The ionization/excitation of the molecule leads to the cage opening and strong structural reorganization. While theoretical predictions suggest that the carbon site CH primarily causes the cage opening, the role of the other CH2 site remains unclear. In this study, we used advanced experimental Auger electron-ion coincidence techniques and theoretical calculations to investigate the fragmentation dynamics of adamantane after resonant inner-shell photoexcitation. Our results demonstrate that some fragmentation channels exhibit site-sensitivity of the initial core-hole location, indicating that different carbon site excitations could lead to unique cage opening mechanisms.

Heavy elements and some nitroimidazoles both exhibit radiosensitizing properties through different mechanisms. In an effort to see how the overall radiosensitivity might be affected when the two radiosensitizers are combined in the same molecule, we studied the gas-phase photodissociation of two brominated nitroimidazoles and a bromine-free reference sample. Synchrotron radiation was employed to initiate the photodynamics and energy-resolved multiparticle coincidence spectroscopy was used to study the ensuing dissociation. We observed the brominated samples releasing high amounts of potentially radiosensitizing fragments upon dissociation. Since bromination also increases the likelihood of the drug molecule being ionised per a given X-ray dose, we conclude that heavy-element substitution of nitroimidazoles appears to be a viable path towards new, potent radiosensitizer drugs.

We investigate the fragmentation dynamics of adamantane dications produced after core-ionization at the carbon edge followed by Auger decay. The combination of high-resolution electron spectroscopy, energy-resolved electron-ion multi-coincidence spectroscopy and different theoretical models allows us to give a complete characterization of the processes involved after ionization. We show that energy- and site-sensitivity is observed even for a highly-symmetric molecule that lacks any unique atomic site.