Research report 2015 - Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics

Observing fast molecular reactions with the free-electron laser FLASH

Authors
Schnorr, Kirsten; Pfeifer, Thomas; Moshammer, Robert
Departments
Forschungsgruppe FEL-Experimente (MPG Research Grant, Robert Moshammer) Abteilung Quantendynamik und -kontrolle (Thomas Pfeifer)
Summary
Using the intense and ultrashort light pulses provided by the free-electron laser FLASH at DESY in Hamburg, it has been possible for the first time to observe fast dynamical processes in individual highly excited molecules as a function of time. By means of the pump-probe technique, where a molecule is excited by a first pulse and subsequently probed by a second delayed pulse, the mechanisms can be uncovered that proceed within a molecule or during its break-up [1]

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