Oliver Gessner Abstract

Oliver Gessner
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

"Taming Dragons - The Next Generation of Ultrafast Science"

Scientific breakthroughs and innovative light sources often show a close relationship and mutual dependence. Over the past 50 years the continuing improvement of laser- and synchrotron -light sources has advance science in the time- and energy-domain, respectively. Currently, great efforts are being made to bridge the gap between the energy-and time-domains e.g. through the development of large-scale 4th generation light sources and laboratory-based high-harmonic generation schemes. In particular, the latter will be exploited in the recently funded Ultrafast X-ray Science Laboratory (UXSL) at LBNL to perform a new class of experiments in Chemical Physics, AMO- and Material Sciences. The Chemical Physics project focuses on the investigation of ultrafast chemical dynamics phenomena using femtosecond duration pulses in the photon energy range from the infrared to the soft X-ray regime. A high-repetition rate high-harmonic generation light source with up to three independent beam lines will be used in combination with state-of-the-art detection schemes. This will enable unprecedented insight into the electron vibrational, and structual dynamics of matter in the gas-, liquid-, and condensed-phase. Examples of planned experiments include the transient electronic entanglement during a unimolecular dissociation, time dependent photoelectron diffraction phenonmena, and the an alysis of de-excitation pathways in UV-excited biomolecules. Construction of the laboratory was started in 2006 and the first up-converted light has just been observed. In my talk I will give an overview of the laboratory facilities, the first series of experiments and the laboratory's place within the landscape of high-end scientific light sources.