Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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TUT: Tutorials

TUT 2: Tutorial Innovations in synchrotron X-ray studies (MI)

TUT 2.3: Tutorium

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 17:30–18:15, EW 202

New Lightsources and New Opportunities in Time-resolved Soft X-ray Spectroscopy — •Martin Beye — Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Berlin, Germany

In this tutorial, I will quickly introduce novel pulsed X-ray sources (especially free-electron lasers like FLASH in Hamburg and LCLS in Stanford, USA) that enable soft X-ray spectroscopy on the ultrafast timescale relevant for electron dynamics and chemical bond making and breaking. After showing how we solve the experimental challenges connected with these new sources, I will feature some results from spectroscopy on correlated materials, where the ultrafast timescale allows to disentangle electronic and lattice degrees of freedom. We study how the excitation with a femtosecond laser destroys orbital and/or charge ordering phenomena. I will close with results on spectroscopy of chemical reactions where we can make full use of the element specificity of soft X-rays to study the dynamics of molecular bonds during chemical reactions. I will show results from reactions in the liquid phase as well as catalytic reactions on surfaces. A fundamental understanding of the ultrafast processes is relevant for applications in the chemical industry. This might allow to specifically tailor active surfaces, for example new catalytic converters in car exhausts.