Public Abstract

DE-FG02-04ER15614: ATTOSECOND, IMAGING AND ULTRA-FAST X-RAY SCIENCE

Award Status: Active

Institution: The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
UEI: DLWBSLWAJWR1
DUNS: 832127323

Most Recent Award Date: 09/01/2023
Number of Support Periods: 18
PM: Settersten, Thomas

Current Budget Period: 07/01/2023 - 06/30/2024
Current Project Period: 07/01/2023 - 06/30/2026
PI: DiMauro, Louis

Supplement Budget Period: N/A

Public Abstract

The invention of the laser in 1960 enabled a wide range of scientific and technological advances, from communications to surgery to facial recognition to analysis of Martian soil. At the heart of these innovations is the interaction of the laser light with physical objects, for example the bar code reader at the supermarket. This grant exploits a specific interaction of laser light with the basic building block of all matter, the atom. In this interaction, large amount of energy from the laser light is coupled into the atom and dissipated by fragmenting the atom into high-energy secondary particles such as electrons, ions and other photons. Analyzing the composition of the fragmentation process and the energy flow among the constituents provides a microscopic view of the elementary physics. In the project, the photons created in this interaction are used to clock the motion of the fastest and lightest constituents of an atom, the electron. The time necessary to clock this motion is one quintillionth of a second or 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000 of a second or alternately, 1 attosecond in time. The new frontier of attosecond science aims at visualizing and controlling and imaging in real time the motion of electrons and nuclear constituents composing matter, the so-called molecular movie. In the new millennium the generation of attosecond XUV pulses became a laboratory reality. A goal of this grant is to apply these light pulses in a series of time-resolved experiments in order to understand correlated electron dynamics, and by doing so provide a new perspective on elementary atomic processes. These studies are enabled by the unique technology developed at The Ohio State University (OSU) for attosecond science that utilizes long wavelength mid-infrared lasers and several OSU attosecond beamline/end-stations. Several key attosecond measurements have been made under this program and provide a firm foundation for continued progress. This grant aims to develop a new paradigm in attosecond science to selectively control quantum trajectories in order to study fundamental aspects of strong field science, and potentially enable the realization of a quantum simulator. An additional scope of this proposal is the continued implementation of a science program using the ultra-fast, intense x-rays available at LCLS XFEL at SLAC National Laboratory. The objective is to develop new metrology for the characterization of the LCLS beam and measurement of ultrafast inner shell processes. In this grant, we will use the newly developed attosecond capabilities of the XLEAP mode of the LCLS to study the fundamental process of molecular charge migration and attempt to explore the unknown realm of high frequency strong field physics.

The invention of the laser in 1960 enabled a wide range of scientific and technological advances, from communications to surgery to facial recognition to analysis of Martian soil. At the heart of these innovations is the interaction of the laser light with physical objects, for example the bar code reader at the supermarket. This grant exploits a specific interaction of laser light with the basic building block of all matter, the atom. In this interaction, large amount of energy from the laser light is coupled into the atom and dissipated by fragmenting the atom into high-energy secondary particles such as electrons, ions and other photons. Analyzing the composition of the fragmentation process and the energy flow among the constituents provides a microscopic view of the elementary physics. In the project, the photons created in this interaction are used to clock the motion of the fastest and lightest constituents of an atom, the electron. The time necessary to clock this motion is one quintillionth of a second or 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000 of a second or alternately, 1 attosecond in time.

The new frontier of attosecond science aims at visualizing and controlling and imaging in real time the motion of electrons and nuclear constituents composing matter, the so-called molecular movie. In the new millennium the generation of attosecond XUV pulses became a laboratory reality. A goal of this grant is to apply these light pulses in a series of time-resolved experiments in order to understand correlated electron dynamics, and by doing so provide a new perspective on elementary atomic processes. These studies are enabled by the unique technology developed at The Ohio State University (OSU) for attosecond science that utilizes long wavelength mid-infrared lasers and several OSU attosecond beamline/end-stations. Several key attosecond measurements have been made under this program and provide a firm foundation for continued progress. This grant aims to develop a new paradigm in attosecond science to selectively control quantum trajectories in order to study fundamental aspects of strong field science, and potentially enable the realization of a quantum simulator.

An additional scope of this proposal is the continued implementation of a science program using the ultra-fast, intense x-rays available at LCLS XFEL at SLAC National Laboratory. The objective is to develop new metrology for the characterization of the LCLS beam and measurement of ultrafast inner shell processes. In this grant, we will use the newly developed attosecond capabilities of the XLEAP mode of the LCLS to study the fundamental process of molecular charge migration and attempt to explore the unknown realm of high frequency strong field physics.