Towards Attosecond Molecular Movies with X-ray Free-Electron Lasers

The motion of electrons in molecules and solids occurs on the subfemtosecond timescale. Consequently, the study of ultrafast electronic phenomena requires the generation of laser pulses shorter than 1 fs and of sufficient intensity to interact with their target with high probability.

Since the first lasing of LCLS much progress has been made to improve the time resolution of X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) experiments, reducing it by one order of magnitude over the initial 100 fs resolution. In my talk I will discuss the frontier of time-resolved pump/probe experiments with XFELs: the attosecond regime.

I will present our recent experimental results within the XLEAP project and discuss our ongoing effort to perform the first X-ray attosecond pump/probe experiment at LCLS-II. I will also discuss other related R&D topics such as electron beam-based ultrafast science and the application of advanced particle accelerators to the generation of Terawatt attosecond Xray pulses.

Speaker: Ago Marinelli, SLAC