No abstract

An era of exploring the interactions of high-intensity, hard X-rays with matter has begun with the start-up of a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). Understanding how electrons in matter respond to ultra-intense X-ray radiation is essential for all applications. Here we reveal the nature of the electronic response in a free atom to unprecedented high-intensity, short-wavelength, high-fluence radiation (respectively 10(18) W cm(-2), 1.5-0.6 nm, approximately 10(5) X-ray photons per A(2)). At this fluence, the neon target inevitably changes during the course of a single femtosecond-duration X-ray pulse-by sequentially ejecting electrons-to produce fully-stripped neon through absorption of six photons. Rapid photoejection of inner-shell electrons produces 'hollow' atoms and an intensity-induced X-ray transparency. Such transparency, due to the presence of inner-shell vacancies, can be induced in all atomic, molecular and condensed matter systems at high intensity. Quantitative comparison with theory allows us to extract LCLS fluence and pulse duration. Our successful modelling of X-ray/atom interactions using a straightforward rate equation approach augurs favourably for extension to complex systems.

Molecular electronic states energetically below the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) should contribute to laser-driven high harmonic generation (HHG), but this behavior has not been observed previously. Our measurements of the HHG spectrum of N 2 molecules aligned perpendicular to the laser polarization show a maximum at the rotational half revival. This feature indicates the influence of electrons occupying the orbital just below the N 2 HOMO, referred to as the HOMO-1. Such observations of lower-lying orbitals are essential to understanding the sub-femtosecond/sub-angstrom electronic motion in laser excited molecules.Tomographic imaging of molecules using high harmonic generation (HHG) has attracted wide interest [1]. The method can be easily described in the framework of a strong-field three-step model [2,3].In this model, a portion of the electron wave function corresponding to the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) tunnels into the continuum and is accelerated in a strong oscillating optical field. This continuum part of the wave function is treated as a free electron wave packet, which interferes coherently with the bound part of the HOMO when it returns to the molecule. Recombination dipole radiation is emitted on every half-cycle of the driving field and the coherent superposition of this radiation over multiple cycles forms a discrete spectrum of odd-order high harmonics. The spectrum contains information about the HOMO structure. Tomographic reconstruction achieves sub-angstrom spatial resolution de-1

Many photoinduced processes including photosynthesis and human vision happen in organic molecules and involve coupled femtosecond dynamics of nuclei and electrons. Organic molecules with heteroatoms often possess an important excited-state relaxation channel from an optically allowed ππ* to a dark nπ* state. The ππ*/nπ* internal conversion is difficult to investigate, as most spectroscopic methods are not exclusively sensitive to changes in the excited-state electronic structure. Here, we report achieving the required sensitivity by exploiting the element and site specificity of near-edge soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy. As a hole forms in the n orbital during ππ*/nπ* internal conversion, the absorption spectrum at the heteroatom K-edge exhibits an additional resonance. We demonstrate the concept using the nucleobase thymine at the oxygen K-edge, and unambiguously show that ππ*/nπ* internal conversion takes place within (60 ± 30) fs. High-level-coupled cluster calculations confirm the method’s impressive electronic structure sensitivity for excited-state investigations.