Search

Physical review letters 129(18), 183204 (2022). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.183204, We report the measurement of the photoelectron angular distribution of two-photon single-ionization near the $2p^2$ $^1D^e$ double-excitation resonance in helium, benchmarking the fundamental nonlinear interaction of two photons with two correlated electrons. This observation is enabled by the unique combination of intense extreme ultraviolet pulses, delivered at the high-repetition-rate free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH), ionizing a jet of cryogenically cooled helium atoms in a reaction microscope. The spectral structure of the intense self-amplified spontaneous emission free-electron laser pulses has been resolved on a single-shot level to allow for post selection of pulses, leading to an enhanced spectral resolution, and introducing a new experimental method. The measured angular distribution is directly compared to state-of-the-art theory based on multichannel quantum defect theory and the streamlined $R$-matrix method. These results and experimental methodology open a promising route for exploring fundamental interactions of few photons with few electrons in general., Published by APS, College Park, Md.

The European physical journal / D 75(7), 205 (2021). doi:10.1140/epjd/s10053-021-00218-0, Ionization of laser-dressed atomic helium is investigated with focus on photoelectron angular distributions stemming from two-color multi-photon excited states. The experiment combines extreme ultraviolet (XUV) with infrared (IR) radiation, while the relative polarization and the temporal delay between the pulses can be varied. By means of an XUV photon energy scan over several electronvolts, we get access to excited states in the dressed atom exhibiting various binding energies, angular momenta, and magnetic quantum numbers. Furthermore, varying the relative polarization is employed as a handle to switch on and off the population of certain states that are only accessible by two-photon excitation. In this way, photoemission can be suppressed for specific XUV photon energies. Additionally, we investigate the dependence of the photoelectron angular distributions on the IR laser intensity. At our higher IR intensities, we start leaving the simple multi-photon ionization regime. The interpretation of the experimental results is supported by numerically solving the time-dependent Schr��dinger equation in a single-active-electron approximation., Published by Springer, Heidelberg

We present single-shot electron velocity-map images of nanoplasmas generated from doped helium nanodroplets and neon clusters by intense near-infrared and mid-infrared laser pulses. We report a large variety of signal types, most crucially depending on the cluster size. The common feature is a two-component distribution for each single-cluster event: A bright inner part with nearly circular shape corresponding to electron energies up to a few eV, surrounded by an extended background of more energetic electrons. The total counts and energy of the electrons in the inner part are strongly correlated and follow a simple power-law dependence. Deviations from the circular shape of the inner electrons observed for neon clusters and large helium nanodroplets indicate non-spherical shapes of the neutral clusters. The dependence of the measured electron energies on the extraction voltage of the spectrometer indicates that the evolution of the nanoplasma is significantly affected by the presence of an external electric field. This conjecture is confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations, which reproduce the salient features of the experimental electron spectra., Comment: 12 pages,12 figures, submitted to New Journal of Physics: Article reference: NJP-113197

A reaction microscope dedicated to multi-particle coincidence spectroscopy on gas-phase samples is installed at beamline FL26 of the free-electron laser FLASH2 in Hamburg. The main goals of the instrument are to follow the dynamics of atoms, molecules and small clusters on their natural time-scale and to study non-linear light–matter interaction with such systems. To this end, the reaction microscope is combined with an in-line extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) split-delay and focusing optics, which allows time-resolved XUV-XUV pump–probe spectroscopy to be performed.

We investigate the subcycle control of electron trajectories in single ionization of Ar atoms with two-color laser pulses consisting of a linearly polarized 800-nm field and a circularly polarized 400-nm field. By varying the relative phase between the two fields, the photoelectron angular distribution rotates in the polarization plane and the rotation velocity can be controlled. From the comparison with results obtained with a semiclassical model, we find that the Coulomb field has a greater impact on direct trajectories than on those that undergo a recollision which is opposite to the electron behavior in a monochromatic field. This effect can be directly visualized in the experiment and finely controlled on a subcycle timescale by means of the two-color field scheme. It is shown that the influence of the Coulomb force on the photoelectron momentum distribution is different along the longitudinal and transverse direction.

Reconstruction of Attosecond Beating By Interference of Two-photon Transitions (RABBITT) is a technique that can be used to determine the phases of atomic transition elements in photoionization processes. In the traditional RABBITT scheme, the so-called "asymptotic approximation" considers the measured phase as a sum of the Wigner phase linked to a single-photon ionization process and the continuum-continuum (cc) phase associated with further single-photon transitions in the continuum. In this paper, we explore the possibility of extending the asymptotic approximation to multi-sideband RABBITT schemes. The predictions from this approximation are then compared with results obtained by an {\it ab initio} calculation based on solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for atomic hydrogen.

Visualizing molecular transformations in real-time requires a structural retrieval method with Ångström spatial and femtosecond temporal atomic resolution. Imaging of hydrogen-containing molecules additionally requires an imaging method that is sensitive to the atomic positions of hydrogen nuclei, with most methods possessing relatively low sensitivity to hydrogen scattering. Laser-induced electron diffraction (LIED) is a table top technique that can image ultrafast structural changes of gas-phase polyatomic molecules with sub-Ångström and femtosecond spatiotemporal resolution together with relatively high sensitivity to hydrogen scattering. Here, we image the umbrella motion of an isolated ammonia molecule (NH3) following its strong field ionization. Upon ionization of a neutral ammonia molecule, the ammonia cation (NH+3) undergoes an ultrafast geometrical transformation from a pyramidal (FHNH=107°) to planar (FHNH=120°) structure in approximately 8 femtoseconds. Using LIED, we retrieve a near-planar (FHNH=117±5°) field-dressed NH+3 molecular structure 7.8-9.8 femtoseconds after ionization. Our measured field-dressed NH+3 structure is in excellent agreement with our calculated equilibrium field dressed structure using quantum chemical ab initio calculations. J.B. and group acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council for ERC Advanced Grant “TRANSFORMER” (788218), ERC Proof of Concept Grant “miniX” (840010), FET-OPEN “PETACom” (829153), FET-OPEN “OPTOlogic” (899794), Laserlab- Europe (EU-H2020 654148), MINECO for Plan Nacional FIS2017-89536-P; AGAUR for 2017 SGR 1639, MINECO for “Severo Ochoa” (SEV- 2015-0522), Fundació Cellex Barcelona, CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize. J.B., K.A. and R.Moszynski. acknowledge the Polish National Science Center within the project Symfonia, 2016/20/W/ST4/00314. J.B and B.B. acknowledge Severo Ochoa” (SEV- 2015-0522). J.B. and A.S. acknowledge funding from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 641272. C.D.L is supported in part by Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U. S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-86ER13491. J.S. and S.G. highly acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) for the ERC Consolidator Grant QUEM-CHEM (772676). The authors thank Alejandro Saenz for helpful discussions.

Physical review / X 11(3), 031001 (1-9) (2021). doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.11.031001, In this work, we use an extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) free-electron laser (FEL) to resonantly excite the I: 4$d_{5/2}–σ^∗$ transition of a gas-phase di-iodomethane (CH$_2$I$_2$) target. This site-specific excitation generates a 4$d$ core hole located at an iodine site, which leaves the molecule in a well-defined excited state. We subsequently measure the time-dependent absorption change of the molecule with the FEL probe spectrum centered on the same I: 4$_d$ resonance. Using ab initio calculations of absorption spectra of a transient isomerization pathway observed in earlier studies, our time-resolved measurements allow us to assign the timescales of the previously reported direct and indirect dissociation pathways. The presented method is thus sensitive to excited-state molecular geometries in a time-resolved manner, following a core-resonant site-specific trigger., Published by APS, College Park, Md.

XUV multiphoton ionization of molecules is commonly used in free-electron laser experiments to study charge transfer dynamics. However, molecular dissociation and electron dynamics, such as multiple photon absorption, Auger decay, and charge transfer, often happen on competing time scales, and the contributions of individual processes can be difficult to unravel. We experimentally investigate the Coulomb explosion dynamics of methyl iodide upon core–hole ionization of the shallow inner-shell of iodine (4d) and classically simulate the fragmentation by phenomenologically introducing ionization dynamics and charge transfer. Under our experimental conditions with medium fluence and relatively long XUV pulses (∼75 fs), we find that fast Auger decay prior to charge transfer significantly contributes to the charging mechanism, leading to a yield enhancement of higher carbon charge states upon molecular dissociation. Furthermore, we argue for the existence of another charging mechanism for the weak fragmentation channels leading to triply charged carbon atoms. This study shows that classical simulations can be a useful tool to guide the quantum mechanical description of the femtosecond dynamics upon multiphoton absorption in molecular systems.

In this paper, a 3-dimensional photoelectron/ion momentum spectrometer (reaction microscope) combined with a table-top attosecond beamline based on a high-repetition rate (49 kHz) laser source is presented. The beamline is designed to achieve a temporal stability below 50 attoseconds. Results from measurements on systems like molecular hydrogen and argon dimers demonstrate the capabilities of this setup in observing the attosecond dynamics in 3D while covering the full solid angle for ionization processes having low cross-sections.

Author(s): Larsen, KA; Rescigno, TN; Severt, T; Streeter, ZL; Iskandar, W; Heck, S; Gatton, A; Champenois, EG; Strom, R; Jochim, B; Reedy, D; Call, D; Moshammer, R; Dorner, R; Landers, AL; Williams, JB; McCurdy, CW; Lucchese, RR; Ben-Itzhak, I; Slaughter, DS; Weber, T | Abstract: We report measurements on the H++H+ fragmentation channel following direct single-photon double ionization of neutral NH3 at 61.5 eV, where the two photoelectrons and two protons are measured in coincidence using three-dimensional (3D) momentum imaging. We identify four dication electronic states that contribute to H++H+ dissociation, based on our multireference configuration-interaction calculations of the dication potential energy surfaces. The extracted branching ratios between these four dication electronic states are presented. Of the four dication electronic states, three dissociate in a concerted process, while the fourth undergoes a sequential fragmentation mechanism. We find evidence that the neutral NH fragment or intermediate NH+ ion is markedly rovibrationally excited. We also identify differences in the relative emission angle between the two photoelectrons as a function of their energy sharing for the four different dication states, which bare some similarities to previous observations made on atomic targets.

Applied Sciences 10(8), 2953 (2020). doi:10.3390/app10082953, The reaction microscope (REMI) endstation for atomic and molecular science at the free-electron laser FLASH2 at DESY in Hamburg is presented together with a brief overview of results recently obtained. The REMI allows coincident detection of electrons and ions that emerge from atomic or molecular fragmentation reactions in the focus of the extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) free-electron laser (FEL) beam. A large variety of target species ranging from atoms and molecules to small clusters can be injected with a supersonic gas-jet into the FEL focus. Their ionization and fragmentation dynamics can be studied either under single pulse conditions, or for double pulses as a function of their time delay by means of FEL-pump–FEL-probe schemes and also in combination with a femtosecond infrared (IR) laser. In a recent upgrade, the endstation was further extended by a light source based on high harmonic generation (HHG), which is now available for upcoming FEL/HHG pump–probe experiments., Published by MDPI, Basel

We present state-selective measurements on the NH$_2^{+}$ + H$^{+}$ and NH$^{+}$ + H$^{+}$ + H dissociation channels following single-photon double ionization at 61.5 eV of neutral NH$_{3}$, where the two photoelectrons and two cations are measured in coincidence using 3-D momentum imaging. Three dication electronic states are identified to contribute to the NH$_2^{+}$ + H$^{+}$ dissociation channel, where the excitation in one of the three states undergoes intersystem crossing prior to dissociation, producing a cold NH$_2^+$ fragment. In contrast, the other two states directly dissociate, producing a ro-vibrationally excited NH$_2^+$ fragment with roughly 1 eV of internal energy. The NH$^{+}$ + H$^{+}$ + H channel is fed by direct dissociation from three intermediate dication states, one of which is shared with the NH$_2^{+}$ + H$^{+}$ channel. We find evidence of autoionization contributing to each of the double ionization channels. The distributions of the relative emission angle between the two photoelectrons, as well as the relative angle between the recoil axis of the molecular breakup and the polarization vector of the ionizing field, are also presented to provide insight on both the photoionization and photodissociation mechanisms for the different dication states., Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, 3 tables

Free-electron lasers provide ultrashort ( 10 fs) and extremely intense ( 10 photons/pulse) light pulses over a wavelength regime that spans from soft (10 eV) to hard X-ray energies (15 keV). It is in particular the unrivaled combination of high intensities and short pulse lengths that enables unique, hitherto only partly explored possibilities for molecular physics and photochemistry. Recently performed or anticipated FEL experiments cover widespread topics in this exciting research field: photon-induced reactions in molecular ions relevant for planetary science have been studied, XUV or X-ray pump–probe experiments allow one to trace chemical reactions with atomic spatial and temporal resolution, the dynamical evolution of highly excited molecular states can be monitored on relevant time scales, inner-shell photoelectron spectroscopy has been demonstrated to offer utmost sensitivity for chemical analysis, first diffractive scattering experiments hold the promise to achieve imaging of single molecules in the gas phase, and the very successful concepts applied in femtochemistry with optical and UV laser will certainly be carried over to XUV and X-ray energies in the very near future. Here, an introduction into physical concepts and emerging technologies as well as an overview about recent results is provided.

We present a HHG-based vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) source at the free electron laser FLASH2. The source provides ultrashort pulses from 10 to 40eV, coupled to the REMI end-station (beamline FL26) for VUV-FEL pump-probe experiments.

We present a VUV beamline installed as pump-probe source at the free-electron laser FLASH. The source is based on high-order harmonic generation driven by femtosec-ond near-infrared laser pulses synchronized with the FEL burst mode.

Charge transfer (CT) at avoided crossings of excited ionized states of argon dimers is observed using a two-color pump-probe experiment at the free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH). The process is initiated by the absorption of three 27-eV-photons from the pump pulse, which leads to the population of Ar2+*–Ar states. Due to nonadiabatic coupling between these one-site doubly ionized states and two-site doubly ionized states of the type Ar+*–Ar+, CT can take place leading to the population of the latter states. The onset of this process is probed by a delayed infrared (800 nm) laser pulse. The latter ionizes the dimers populating repulsive Ar2+ –Ar+ states, which then undergo a Coulomb explosion. From the delay-dependent yields of the obtained Ar2+ and Ar+ ions, the lifetime of the charge-transfer process is extracted. The obtained experimental value of (531 ± 136) fs agrees well with the theoretical value computed from Landau-Zener probabilities.

We report on the experimental observation of strong-field dressing of an autoionizing two-electron state in helium with intense extreme-ultraviolet laser pulses from a free-electron laser. The asymmetric Fano line shape of this transition is spectrally resolved, and we observe modifications of the resonance asymmetry structure for increasing free-electron-laser pulse energy on the order of few tens of $\mu$J. A quantum-mechanical calculation of the time-dependent dipole response of this autoionizing state, driven by classical extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) electric fields, reveals a direct link between strong-field-induced energy and phase shifts of the doubly excited state and the Fano line-shape asymmetry. The experimental results obtained at the Free-Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) thus correspond to transient energy shifts on the order of few meV, induced by strong XUV fields. These results open up a new way of performing non-perturbative XUV nonlinear optics for the light-matter interaction of resonant electronic transitions in atoms at short wavelengths., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures

Observing changes in molecular structure requires atomic-scale Ångstrom and femtosecond spatio-temporal resolution. We use the Fourier transform (FT) variant of laser-induced electron diffraction (LIED), FT-LIED, to directly retrieve the molecular structure of H2O + with picometer and femtosecond resolution without a priori knowledge of the molecular structure nor the use of retrieval algorithms or ab initio calculations. We identify a symmetrically stretched H2O + field-dressed structure that is most likely in the ground electronic state. We subsequently study the nuclear response of an isolated water molecule to an external laser field at four different field strengths. We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (Grant No. SEV-2015-0522) Fundació Cellex Barcelona and the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. X.L., K.A., T.S., A.S., B.B., M.S., and J.B. acknowledge the European Research Council (ERC) for ERC Advanced Grant TRANSFORMER (Grant No. 788218), MINECO for Plan Nacional Grant No. FIS2017-89536-P, AGAUR for 2017 Grant No. SGR1639, and Laserlab-Europe (EU-H2020 654148). K.A., J.B., and R. Moszynski acknowledge the Polish National Science Center within the project Symfonia, 2016/20/W/ST4/00314. X.L. and J.B. acknowledge financial support from China Scholarship Council. A.S. and J.B. acknowledge Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 641272. J.S. and S.G. acknowledge the ERC Consolidator Grant QUEMCHEM (Grant No. 772676). C.D.L. is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-86ER13491.

Physical review letters 122(7), 073001 (2019). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.073001, Time delays for atomic photoemission obtained in streaking or reconstruction of attosecond bursts by interference of two-photon transitions experiments originate from a combination of the quantum mechanical Wigner time and the Coulomb-laser coupling. While the former was investigated intensively theoretically as well as experimentally, the latter attracted less interest in experiments and has mostly been subject to calculations. Here, we present a measurement of the Coulomb-laser coupling-induced time shifts in photoionization of neon at 59.4 eV using a terahertz (THz) streaking field (λ=152 μm). Employing a reaction microscope at the THz beamline of the free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH), we have measured relative time shifts of up to 70 fs between the emission of 2p photoelectrons (∼38 eV) and low-energetic (, Published by APS, College Park, Md.

The laser-induced nonsequential double ionization (NSDI) of rare gas atoms in the near and mid-IR laser fields is studied experimentally and theoretically. We investigate electron-electron correlation at high recollision energies, experimentally achieving ponderomotive energies (Up) above 80 eV. The contribution of the two dominant channels of NSDI in the photoelectron momentum distribution, impact, and excitation ionization, are both shown to scale with ponderomotive energy and are well reproduced by theory. Surprisingly, for a large Up in mid-IR fields, a noticeable electron-electron anticorrelation signal emerges at low photoelectron momenta, which cannot be explained by these mechanisms within state-of-the-art theoretical approaches.

As opposed to purely molecular systems where electron dynamics proceed only through intramolecular processes, weakly bound complexes such as He droplets offer an environment where local excitations can interact with neighbouring embedded molecules leading to new intermolecular relaxation mechanisms. Here, we report on a new decay mechanism leading to the double ionization of alkali dimers attached to He droplets by intermolecular energy transfer. From the electron spectra, the process is similar to the well-known shake-off mechanism observed in double Auger decay and single-photon double ionization, however, in this case, the process is dominant, occurring with efficiencies equal to, or greater than, single ionization by energy transfer. Although an alkali dimer attached to a He droplet is a model case, the decay mechanism is relevant for any system where the excitation energy of one constituent exceeds the double ionization potential of another neighbouring molecule. The process is, in particular, relevant for biological systems, where radicals and slow electrons are known to cause radiation damage, accepted as Nature Physics

Angewandte Chemie / International edition 128(36), 10899 - 10903(2016). doi:10.1002/ange.201605335, The fragmentation of free tenfold protonated ubiquitin in intense 70 femtosecond pulses of 90 eV photons from the FLASH facility was investigated. Mass spectrometric investigation of the fragment cations produced after removal of many electrons revealed fragmentation predominantly into immonium ions and related ions, with yields increasing linearly with intensity. Ionization clearly triggers a localized molecular response that occurs before the excitation energy equilibrates. Consistent with this interpretation, the effect is almost unaffected by the charge state, as fragmentation of sixfold deprotonated ubiquitin leads to a very similar fragmentation pattern. Ubiquitin responds to EUV multiphoton ionization as an ensemble of small peptides., Published by Wiley-VCH9102, Weinheim

The migration of hydrogen atoms resulting in the isomerization of hydrocarbons is an important process which can occur on ultrafast timescales. Here, we visualize the light-induced hydrogen migration of acetylene to vinylidene in an ionic state using two synchronized 4 fs intense laser pulses. The first pulse induces hydrogen migration, and the second is used for monitoring transient structural changes via Coulomb explosion imaging. Varying the time delay between the pulses reveals the migration dynamics with a time constant of 54 ± 4 fs as observed in the H+ + H+ + CC+ channel. Due to the high temporal resolution, vibrational wave-packet motions along the CC- and CH-bonds are observed. Even though a maximum in isomerization yield for kinetic energy releases above 16 eV is measured, we find no indication for a backwards isomerization — in contrast to previous measurements. Here, we propose an alternative explanation for the maximum in isomerization yield, namely the surpassing of the transition state to the vinylidene configuration within the excited dication state.

Structural information on electronically excited neutral molecules can be indirectly retrieved, largely through pump–probe and rotational spectroscopy measurements with the aid of calculations. Here, we demonstrate the direct structural retrieval of neutral carbonyl disulfide (CS2) in the B ∼ 1 B 2 excited electronic state using laser-induced electron diffraction (LIED). We unambiguously identify the ultrafast symmetric stretching and bending of the field-dressed neutral CS2 molecule with combined picometer and attosecond resolution using intrapulse pump–probe excitation and measurement. We invoke the Renner–Teller effect to populate the B ∼ 1 B 2 excited state in neutral CS2, leading to bending and stretching of the molecule. Our results demonstrate the sensitivity of LIED in retrieving the geometric structure of CS2, which is known to appear as a two-center scatterer.

We investigate the carrier-envelope phase and intensity dependence of the longitudinal momentum distribution of photoelectrons resulting from above-threshold ionization of argon by few-cycle laser pulses. The intensity of the pulses with a center wavelength of 750\,nm is varied in a range between $0.7 \times 10^{14}$ and $\unit[5.5 \times 10^{14}]{W/cm^2}$. Our measurements reveal a prominent maximum in the carrier-envelope phase-dependent asymmetry at photoelectron energies of 2\,$U_\mathrm{P}$ ($U_\mathrm{P}$ being the ponderomotive potential), that is persistent over the entire intensity range. Further local maxima are observed at 0.3 and 0.8\,$U_\mathrm{P}$. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical results obtained by solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation (3D TDSE). We show that for few-cycle pulses, the carrier-envelope phase-dependent asymmetry amplitude provides a reliable measure for the peak intensity on target. Moreover, the measured asymmetry amplitude exhibits an intensity-dependent interference structure at low photoelectron energy, which could be used to benchmark model potentials for complex atoms.

We demonstrate the complete reconstruction of the electric field of visible-infrared pulses with energy as low as a few tens of nanojoules. The technique allows for the reconstruction of the instantaneous electric field vector direction and magnitude, thus giving access to the characterisation of pulses with an arbitrary time-dependent polarisation state. The technique combines extreme ultraviolet interferometry with the generation of isolated attosecond pulses., Comment: 5 figures

Intense, multi-color laser fields permit the control of the ionization of atoms and the steering of electron dynamics. Here, we present the efficient collinear creation of the second and third harmonic of a 790 nm femtosecond laser followed by a versatile field synthesizer for the three color fields' composition. Using the device, we investigate the strong-field ionization of neon by fields composed of the fundamental, and the second or third harmonic. The three-color device offers sufficient flexibility for the coherent control of strong-field processes and for time-resolved pump-probe studies.

The first hundred attoseconds of the electron dynamics during strong field tunneling ionization are investigated. We quantify theoretically how the electron's classical trajectories in the continuum emerge from the tunneling process and test the results with those achieved in parallel from attoclock measurements. An especially high sensitivity on the tunneling barrier is accomplished here by comparing the momentum distributions of two atomic species of slightly deviating atomic potentials (argon and krypton) being ionized under absolutely identical conditions with near-infrared laser pulses (1300 nm). The agreement between experiment and theory provides clear evidence for a nonzero tunneling time delay and a nonvanishing longitudinal momentum of the electron at the ``tunnel exit.''

Interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) is induced in helium nanodroplets by photoexciting the $n=2$ excited state of ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$ using XUV synchrotron radiation. By recording multiple-coincidence electron and ion images we find that ICD occurs in various locations at the droplet surface, inside the surface region, or in the droplet interior. ICD at the surface gives rise to energetic ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$ ions as previously observed for free He dimers. ICD deeper inside leads to the ejection of slow ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$ ions due to Coulomb explosion delayed by elastic collisions with neighboring He atoms, and to the formation of ${\mathrm{He}}_{k}{}^{+}$ complexes.

Channel-selective electron emission from strong-field photoionization of ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ molecules is experimentally investigated by using ultrashort laser pulses and a reaction microscope. The electron momenta and energy spectra in coincidence with bound and dissociative ionization channels are compared. Surprisingly, we observed an enhancement of the photoelectron yield in the low-energy region for the bound ionization channel. By further investigation of asymmetrical electron emission using two-color laser pulses, this enhancement is understood as the population of the autoionizing states of ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ molecules in which vibrational energy is transferred to electronic energy. This general mechanism provides access to the vibrational-state distribution of molecular ions produced in a strong-field interaction.

The ultrafast transfer of excitation energy from one atom to its neighbor is observed in singly charged argon dimers in a time-resolved extreme ultraviolet (XUV)-pump IR-probe experiment. In the pump step, bound 3s-hole states in the dimer are populated by single XUV-photon ionization. The excitation-energy transfer at avoided crossings of the potential-energy curves leads to dissociation of the dimer, which is experimentally observed by further ionization with a time-delayed IR-probe pulse. From the measured pump-probe delay-dependent kinetic-energy release of coincident Ar+ + Ar+ ions, we conclude that the transfer of energy occurs on a time scale of about 800fs . This mechanism represents a fast relaxation process below the energy threshold for interatomic Coulombic decay.

Nature photonics 11(6), 383 - 389 (2017). doi:10.1038/nphoton.2017.73, An electrical pulse E(t) is defined completely by its time-dependent amplitude and polarization direction. For opticalpulses the manipulation and characterization of the light polarization state is fundamental because of its relevance inseveral scientific and technologicalfields. In this work, we demonstrate the complete temporal reconstruction of theelectricfield of few-cycle pulses with a complex time-dependent polarization. Our experimental approach is based onextreme ultraviolet interferometry with isolated attosecond pulses and on the demonstration that the motion of anattosecond electron wave packet is sensitive to perturbingfields only along the direction of its motion. By exploiting thesensitivity of interferometric techniques and by controlling the emission and acceleration direction of the wave packet,pulses with energies as low as a few hundreds of nanojoules can be reconstructed. Our approach reveals the possibility tocharacterize completely the electricfield of the pulses typically used in visible pump–probe spectroscopy., Published by Nature Publ. Group, London [u.a.]

We have combined a tandem mass spectrometer with a 780 nm fs-laser system to study photoionization and photofragmentation of trapped protonated leucine enkephalin cations for laser intensities between 2 × 1013 W/cm2 and 1 × 1014 W/cm2 and pulse durations of 15 fs. In this intensity range, the transition from multiphoton ionization and excitation to tunneling ionization is expected to occur. The observed partial ion yield curves as a function of laser intensity exhibit a power-law dependence, indicating multiphoton absorption to be the dominating mechanism. Pump-probe studies were performed to investigate the time-evolution of the multiphoton ionization process. The partial ion yields of almost all fragmentation channels show a broad but distinct maximum at a delay-time of approximately 750 fs. The particularly flat appearance of the pump-probe curves suggests that not a single resonance, but a broad distribution of resonances is involved.

Channel-selective electron emission from strong-field photoionization of H_{2} molecules is experimentally investigated by using ultrashort laser pulses and a reaction microscope. The electron momenta and energy spectra in coincidence with bound and dissociative ionization channels are compared. Surprisingly, we observed an enhancement of the photoelectron yield in the low-energy region for the bound ionization channel. By further investigation of asymmetrical electron emission using two-color laser pulses, this enhancement is understood as the population of the autoionizing states of H_{2} molecules in which vibrational energy is transferred to electronic energy. This general mechanism provides access to the vibrational-state distribution of molecular ions produced in a strong-field interaction.

We have investigated nuclear dynamics in bound and dissociating acetylene molecular ions in a time-resolved reaction microscopy experiment with a pair of few-cycle pulses. Different ionization processes were observed for acetylene. These time-dependent ionization processes are simulated using semi-classical on-the-fly dynamics revealing the underling mechanisms.

Einen neuen Weg in die Femtochemie eroffnen die intensiven Femtosekunden-Lichtpulse im extremen Ultraviolett (EUV) aus dem Freie-Elektronen-Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) zusammen mit einer ausgefeilten Pump-Probe-Apparatur. Damit konnte erstmals die lichtinduzierte Umwandlung eines Acetylenmolekuls in sein Isomer Vinyliden in drei Dimensionen als “Zeitlupenfilm” visualisiert werden. Ein EUV-Puls ionisiert zunachst das Acetylen, das seine Kernbausteine umordnet und allmahlich die Form von Vinyliden annimmt. Ein zweiter, sehr intensiver Lichtpuls ionisiert es wahrenddessen weiter, so dass es explodiert. Aus der prazisen Erfassung der Fragmente gelingt eine genaue Rekonstruktion der geometrischen Struktur des Molekuls zum Explosionszeitpunkt. Der Ablauf dieser Isomerisierungsreaktion lasst sich durch Variation des Zeitabstands zwischen Pump- und Probepuls in Raum und Zeit prazise verfolgen. In Zukunft sollen damit chemische Reaktionen mit Femtosekunden-Auflosung “gefilmt” werden, die fur Biologie und Anwendungen wichtig sind.

X-ray free-electron lasers provide unique opportunities for exploring ultrafast dynamics and for imaging the structures of complex systems. Understanding the response of individual atoms to intense X-rays is essential for most free-electron laser applications. First experiments have shown that, for light atoms, the dominant interaction mechanism is ionization by sequential electron ejection, where the highest charge state produced is defined by the last ionic state that can be ionized with one photon. Here, we report an unprecedentedly high degree of ionization of xenon atoms by 1.5 keV free-electron laser pulses to charge states with ionization energies far exceeding the photon energy. Comparing ion charge-state distributions and fluorescence spectra with state-of-the-art calculations, we find that these surprisingly high charge states are created via excitation of transient resonances in highly charged ions, and predict resonance enhanced absorption to be a general phenomenon in the interaction of intense X-rays with systems containing high-Z constituents. Researchers create high ionization states, up to Xe36+, using 1.5 keV free-electron laser pulses. The higher than expected ionization may be due to transient resonance-enhanced absorption and the effect may play an important role in interactions of intense X-rays with high-Z elements and radiation damage.

Visualizing chemical reactions as they occur requires atomic spatial and femtosecond temporal resolution. Here, we report imaging of the molecular structure of acetylene (C 2 H 2 ) 9 femtoseconds after ionization. Using mid-infrared laser–induced electron diffraction (LIED), we obtained snapshots as a proton departs the [C 2 H 2 ] 2+ ion. By introducing an additional laser field, we also demonstrate control over the ultrafast dissociation process and resolve different bond dynamics for molecules oriented parallel versus perpendicular to the LIED field. These measurements are in excellent agreement with a quantum chemical description of field-dressed molecular dynamics.

Temporal evolution of electronic and nuclear wave packets created in strong-field excitation of the carbon dioxide molecule is studied employing momentum-resolved ion spectroscopy and channel-selective Fourier analysis. Combining the data obtained with two different pump-probe set-ups, we observed signatures of vibrational dynamics in both, ionic and neutral states of the molecule. We consider far-off-resonance two-photon Raman scattering to be the most likely mechanism of vibrational excitation in the electronic ground state of the neutral CO2. Using the measured phase relation between the time-dependent yields of different fragmentation channels, which is consistent with the proposed mechanism, we suggest an intuitive picture of the underlying vibrational dynamics. For ionic states, we found signatures of both, electronic and vibrational excitations, which involve the ground and the first excited electronic states, depending on the particular final state of the fragmentation. While our results for ionic states are consistent with the recent observations by Erattupuzha et al. [J. Chem. Phys.144, 024306 (2016)], the neutral state contribution was not observed there, which we attribute to a larger bandwidth of the 8 fs pulses we used for this experiment. In a complementary measurement employing longer, 35 fs pulses in a 30 ps delay range, we study the influence of rotational excitation on our observables, and demonstrate how the coherent electronic wave packet created in the ground electronic state of the ion completely decays within 10 ps due to the coupling to rotational motion.

In order to probe molecular dynamics at few-femtosecond resolution we use laser-induced electron diffraction imaging driven by mid-IR electric waveforms. Combined with coincidence detection we can extract structural information of fragmentation pathways of acetylene.