We report recent results on the performance of FLASH (Free Electron Laser in Hamburg) operating at a wavelength of 13.7 nm where unprecedented peak and average powers for a coherent EUV radiation source have been measured. In the saturation regime the peak energy approached 170 µJ for individual pulses while the average energy per pulse reached 70 µJ. The pulse duration was in the region of 10 femtoseconds and peak

Comprehensive knowledge of the dynamic behaviour of electrons in condensed-matter systems is pertinent to the development of many modern technologies, such as semiconductor and molecular electronics, optoelectronics, information processing and photovoltaics. Yet it remains challenging to probe electronic processes, many of which take place in the attosecond (1 as = 10(-18) s) regime. In contrast, atomic motion occurs on the femtosecond (1 fs = 10(-15) s) timescale and has been mapped in solids in real time using femtosecond X-ray sources. Here we extend the attosecond techniques previously used to study isolated atoms in the gas phase to observe electron motion in condensed-matter systems and on surfaces in real time. We demonstrate our ability to obtain direct time-domain access to charge dynamics with attosecond resolution by probing photoelectron emission from single-crystal tungsten. Our data reveal a delay of approximately 100 attoseconds between the emission of photoelectrons that originate from localized core states of the metal, and those that are freed from delocalized conduction-band states. These results illustrate that attosecond metrology constitutes a powerful tool for exploring not only gas-phase systems, but also fundamental electronic processes occurring on the attosecond timescale in condensed-matter systems and on surfaces.

Many scientific disciplines ranging from physics, chemistry and biology to material sciences, geophysics and medical diagnostics need a powerful X-ray source with pulse

The early steps (<1 ns) in the photocycle of the detergent solubilized proton pump proteorhodopsin are analyzed by ultrafast spectroscopic techniques. A comparison to the first primary events in reconstituted proteorhodopsin as well as to the well known archaeal proton pump bacteriorhodopsin is given. A dynamic Stokes shift observed in fs-time-resolved fluorescence experiments allows a direct observation of early motions on the excited state potential energy surface. The initial dynamics is dominated by sequentially emerging stretching (<150 fs) and torsional (approximately 300 fs) modes of the retinal. The different protonation states of the primary proton acceptor Asp-97 drastically affect the reaction rate and the overall quantum efficiencies of the isomerization reactions, mainly evidenced for time scales above 1 ps. However, no major influence on the fast time scales (approximately 150 fs) could be seen, indicating that the movement out of the Franck-Condon region is fairly robust to electrostatic changes in the retinal binding pocket. Based on fs-time-resolved absorption and fluorescence spectra, ground and exited state contributions can be disentangled and allow to construct a reaction model that consistently explains pH-dependent effects in solubilized and reconstituted proteorhodopsin.

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