Nanostructures and Ultrafast X-Ray Science

This group develops and uses new methods to flash-image fragile and short-lived nanostructures and ultrafast changes in their electronic and structural properties via diffraction imaging, pushing towards extreme temporal resolution. For this endeavour they use the intense XUV and X-ray pulses from Free-Electron Lasers (FELs) and lab-based High-Harmonic Generation (HHG) sources. Experiments are prepared and carried out regularly at XUV and X-ray FELs around the world, often working within international collaborations. Upcoming projects involve the FERMI FEL in Trieste, Italy, the SwissFEL in Villigen, Switzerland, FLASH and European XFEL in Hamburg, Germany, and LCLS at SLAC in Stanford, USA. Together with collaborators from the Max-Born-Institut in Berlin, the group is developing HHG experiments towards attosecond diffraction. The group is also associated with external page NCCR MUST.