Attosecond Science Campaign
Realtime Observation of Ultrafast Electron Motion
This LCLS-led campaign seeks to perform measurements of attosecond electron dynamics and subsequent coupling to nuclear motion using the soft X-ray attosecond capabilities of the LCLS. The continuous tunability and orders-of-magnitude pulse energy increase (compared to any previous attosecond source) produced by enhanced SASE operation at the LCLS enable a suite of nonlinear spectroscopies which are unavailable elsewhere. We attempt to make use of these unique capabilities to perform measurements demonstrating the control and observation of coherent electronic motion on its natural attosecond timescale, and explore how it affects the subsequent motion of the nuclei to drive chemical change. This campaign will provide pioneering insights into the coherent motion of electrons and how this drives chemical change, producing incisive X-ray observables against which theory can be directly tested on an unprecedented level of detail with particular emphasis on the atomic site-specific information content of X-ray transitions.
Campaign Team
LCLS Leadership James Cryan |
SLAC Zhaoheng Guo Argonne National Lab Gilles Doumy Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Oliver Gessner
Kansas State University Daniel Rolles | Imperial College, London Vitali Averbukh Universidad Autonoma de Madrid Gilbert Grell Paul Scherrer Institut Christoph Bostedt The Ohio State University Greg McCracken University of Connecticut Sandra Beauvarlet Lousianna State University Ken Lopata Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Muchen Philipp Rosenberger Tohoku University Kiyoshi Ueda |
Research Results and Highlights
Notable results published as part of the Attosecond Campaign Collaboration.
Attosecond response of molecules to impulsive ionization
We measure the ultrafast response of para-aminophenol to sudden ionization using attosecond X-ray absorption spectroscopy. We resolve the ultrafast dynamics of the ionized molecule with atomic precision, differentiating non-radiative decay pathways from oscillatory singnatures of electronic wavepacket motion. We compare our measurement with state-of-the-art computational modelling, qualitatively reproducing the observed response across multiple timescales. These results provide a benchmark for computational models of sudden ionization and ultrafast charge motion in matter.
