Overview

The Chemical Dynamics project extends the field of ultrafast time-domain studies on molecular and interfacial energy and charge transfer, bonding, electronic relaxation pathways, and structural dynamics into the soft X-ray energy regime. Various high-order harmonic generation (HHG) schemes are employed in order to generate ultrashort pulses with photon energies ranging from tens of eV up to the sulfur 2p edge (≈170 eV). The goal is to study chemically relevant transitions and mechanisms on the single molecule level in real-time and with the precision of isolated single-photon processes in the soft X-ray photon energy range.

The project encompasses three HHG beamlines delivering ultrashort XUV and soft X-ray pulses to a number of task-specific experimental endstations. The use of a state-of-the-art, high-repetition, high-power driving laser system allows for the generation of sufficient XUV photon flux to perform highly differential, femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron and ion spectroscopy and imaging experiments on isolated molecules and clusters.

Laboratory based experiments are complemented by experimental campaigns at X-ray free electron lasers (X-FELs) and synchrotron radiation light sources.