MBI Colloquium: Gas-phase photochemistry studies with free-electron lasers

Prof. Daniel Rolles | Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA

X-ray free-electron lasers provide intense, short-pulse, short-wavelength radiation that can be used to study ultrafast electronic and structural dynamics in gas-phase molecules with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. I will present recent examples of experiments utilizing a variety of different techniques such as time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy [1] and Coulomb explosion imaging [2,3]. The results are compared to similar experiments performed with other ultrafast techniques such as ultrafast electron diffraction and strong-field ionization based experiments with near-infrared laser sources [4] in order to highlight strengths and limitations of each technique.

[1]    S. Pathak et al., Nat. Chem. 12, 795 (2020)
[2]    R. Boll et al., Nat. Phys. 18, 423-428 (2022)
[3]    S. Pathak et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 11, 10205 (2020)
[4]    S. Bhattacharyya et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 13, 5845 (2022)