Advancements in attosecond soft-X-ray spectroscopy by ICFO researchers have transformed material analysis, particularly in studying light-matter interactions and many-body dynamics, with promising implications for future technological applications.
X-ray absorption spectroscopy is an element-selective and electronic-state sensitive technique that is one of the most widely used analytical techniques to study the composition of materials or substances. Until recently, the method required arduous wavelength scanning and did not provide ultrafast temporal resolution to study electronic dynamics.
Over the last decade, the Attoscience and Ultrafast Optics group at ICFO le,d by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Jens Biegert h, has developed attosecond soft-X-ray absorption spectroscopy into a new analytical tool without the need for scanning and with attosecond temporal resolution.[1,2]
Breakthrough in Attosecond Soft-X-ray Spectroscopy
Attosecond soft-X-ray pulses with a duration between 23 as and 165 as and concomitant coherent soft-X-ray bandwidth from 120 to 600 eV[3] allow interrogation of the entire electronic structure of a material at once.
The combination of time resolution to detect electronic motion in real-time and the coherent bandwidth that registers where the change happens provides an entirely new and powerful tool for solid-state physics and chemistry.
One of the most fundamentally important processes is the interaction of light with matter, e.g., to understand how solar energy is harvested in plants or how a solar cell converts sunlight into electricity.
An essential aspect of material science is the prospect of altering the quantum state, or the function, of a material or substance with light. Such research into the many-body dynamics of materials addresses core challenges in contemporary physics, such as what triggers any quantum phase transition or how properties of materials arise from microscopic interactions.
Recent Study by ICFO Researchers
In a recent study published in the journal DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43191-5
Notes
- “High-flux table-top soft x-ray source driven by sub-2-cycle, CEP stable, 1.85-μm 1-kHz pulses for carbon K-edge spectroscopy” by F. Silva, S. Teichmann, M. Hemmer, S. L. Cousin, J. Biegert and B. Buades, 14 September 2014, Optics Letters.
DOI: doi:10.1364/OL.39.005383 - “Dispersive soft x-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy in graphite with an attosecond pulse” by Iker León, Themistoklis P. H. Sidiropoulos, Irina Pi, Dooshaye Moonshiram, Antonio Picón, Jens Biegert, Nicola Di Palo, Peter Schmidt, Seth L. Cousin, Bárbara Buades and Frank Koppens, 19 May 2018, Optica.
DOI: doi:10.1364/OPTICA.5.000502 - “Attosecond Streaking in the Water Window: A New Regime of Attosecond Pulse Characterization” by Seth L. Cousin, Nicola Di Palo, Bárbara Buades, Stephan M. Teichmann, M. Reduzzi, M. Devetta, A. Kheifets, G. Sansone and Jens Biegert, 2 November 2017, Physical Review X.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041030