Sandra Beauvarlet, University of Connecticut/SLAC

Abstract:

Soft X-ray attosecond pulses from X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) provide the opportunity to study charge dynamics on the electronic timescale with atomic site specificity. Capturing experimentally the electronic motion created by photo-induced excitation is still a challenge and the observation of electronic charge dynamics in molecules is a topic of broad interest for photophysics and photochemistry. In this work, we investigate ultrafast charge motion in aminophenol (C6H7NO), demonstrating a promising attosecond X-ray pump- attosecond X-ray probe scheme with the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).

An attosecond soft X-ray (300 eV) pump tuned above the carbon K-edge core ionizes the molecule creating a core-shell vacancy in the carbon ring. The subsequent Auger-Meitner (AM) decay is probed with a second attosecond X-ray (600 eV) pulse. The kinetic energy spectrum of the electrons ionized by the probe pulse is analyzed, and we will present preliminary results that examine the time-dependent shift in binding energy. We observed a transition from the formation of two-site double core hole state by the probe pulse (prior to the AM decay), to ionization of the dicatonic state (when the AM decay occurs prior to the probe pulse ionization).

Poster Session Link: https://gather.town/invite?token=0pEoq7VP

If you have any questions for the presenter, please contact them via email: sbeauv@slac.stanford.edu