Markus Guehr

Femtosecond X-ray-induced explosion of C 60 at extreme intensity

Understanding molecular femtosecond dynamics under intense X-ray exposure is critical to progress in biomolecular imaging and matter under extreme conditions. Imaging viruses and proteins at an atomic spatial scale and on the time scale of atomic motion requires rigorous, quantitative understanding of dynamical effects of intense X-ray exposure. Here we present an experimental and theoretical study of C60 molecules interacting with intense X-ray pulses from a free-electron laser, revealing the influence of processes not previously reported. Our work illustrates the successful use of classical mechanics to describe all moving particles in C60, an approach that scales well to larger systems, for example, biomolecules. Comparisons of the model with experimental data on C60 ion fragmentation show excellent agreement under a variety of laser conditions. The results indicate that this modelling is applicable for X-ray interactions with any extended system, even at higher X-ray dose rates expected with future light sources.

Diffractive imaging of a rotational wavepacket in nitrogen molecules with femtosecond megaelectronvolt electron pulses

Imaging changes in molecular geometries on their natural femtosecond timescale with sub-Angström spatial precision is one of the critical challenges in the chemical sciences, as the nuclear geometry changes determine the molecular reactivity. For photoexcited molecules, the nuclear dynamics determine the photoenergy conversion path and efficiency. Here we report a gas-phase electron diffraction experiment using megaelectronvolt (MeV) electrons, where we captured the rotational wavepacket dynamics of nonadiabatically laser-aligned nitrogen molecules. We achieved a combination of 100 fs root-mean-squared temporal resolution and sub-Angstrom (0.76 Å) spatial resolution that makes it possible to resolve the position of the nuclei within the molecule. In addition, the diffraction patterns reveal the angular distribution of the molecules, which changes from prolate (aligned) to oblate (anti-aligned) in 300 fs. Our results demonstrate a significant and promising step towards making atomically resolved movies of molecular reactions.

Femtosecond X-ray-induced fragmentation of fullerenes

A new class of femtosecond, intense, short – wavelength lasers – the free-electron laser – has opened up new opportunities to investigate the structure and dynamics in many scientific areas. These new lasers, whose performance keeps increasing, enable the understanding of physical and chemical changes at an atomic spatial scale and on the time scale of atomic motion which is essential for a broad range of scientific fields. We describe here the interaction of fullerenes in the multiphoton regime with the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser at SLAC National Laboratory. In particular, we report on new data regarding the ionization of Ho3N@C80 molecules and compare the results with our prior C60 investigation of radiation damage induced by the LCLS pulses. We also discuss briefly the potential impact of newly available instrumentation to physical and chemical sciences when they are coupled with FELs as well as theoretical calculations and modeling.

Auger electron and photoabsorption spectra of glycine in the vicinity of the oxygen K-edge measured with an X-FEL

We report the first measurement of the near oxygen K-edge auger spectrum of the glycine molecule. Our work employed an x-ray free electron laser as the photon source operated with input photon energies tunable between 527 and 547 eV. Complete electron spectra were recorded at each photon energy in the tuning range, revealing resonant and non-resonant auger structures. Finally ab initio theoretical predictions are compared with the measured above the edge auger spectrum and an assignment of auger decay channels is performed.

A study of the dynamical energy flow in uracil

The time resolved photoionization of C 1s in uracil following excitation of the neutral molecule by 260 nm pulses has been studied at LCLS.

Axis-dependence of molecular high harmonic emission in three dimensions

High-order harmonic generation in an atomic or molecular gas is a promising source of sub-femtosecond vacuum ultraviolet coherent radiation for transient scattering, absorption, metrology and imaging applications. High harmonic spectra are sensitive to Ångstrom-scale structure and motion of laser-driven molecules, but interference from radiation produced by random molecular orientations obscures this in all but the simplest cases, such as linear molecules. Here we show how to extract full body-frame high harmonic generation information for molecules with more complicated geometries by utilizing the methods of coherent transient rotational spectroscopy. To demonstrate this approach, we obtain the relative strength of harmonic emission along the three principal axes in the asymmetric-top sulphur dioxide. This greatly simplifies the analysis task of high harmonic spectroscopy and extends its usefulness to more complex molecules.

Ultrafast X-ray probe of nucleobase photoprotection

We will present first results of a UV-pump X-ray-probe study of the photoprotection mechanism of thymine. The experiment used element specific Auger spectroscopy and was carried out at the LCLS.

Relativistic ultrafast electron diffraction from molecules in the gas phase(Conference Presentation)

Ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) is a powerful technique that can be used to resolve structural changes of gas molecules during a photochemical reaction. However, the temporal resolution in pump-probe experiments has been limited to the few-ps level by the space-charge effect that broadens the electron pulse duration and by velocity mismatch between the pump laser pulses and the probe electron pulses, making only long-lived intermediate states accessible. Taking advantage of relativistic effects, Mega-electron-volt (MeV) electrons can be used to suppress both the space-charge effect and the velocity mismatch, and hence to achieve a temporal resolution that is fast enough to follow coherent nuclear motion in the target molecules. In this presentation, we show the first MeV UED experiments on gas phase targets. These experiments not only demonstrate that femtosecond temporal resolution is achieved, but also show that the spatial resolution is not compromised. This unprecedented combination of spatiotemporal resolution is sufficient to image coherent nuclear motions, and opens the door to a new class of experiments where the structural changes can be followed simultaneously in both space and time.

Femtosecond x-ray induced fragmentation of Ho3N@C80

We report on new data regarding on the photoionization and fragmentation dynamics of gas phase endohedral fullerenes Ho3N@C80 obtained with intense femtosecond X-ray pulses from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) free electron laser (FEL).

Delayed ultrafast X-ray induced auger probing

We present a new method for probing photoexcited molecular dynamics based on the site selective ionization via ultrafast x-rays followed by Auger decay.