@phdthesis{Born2021, author = {Born, Artur}, title = {Electronic structure, quasi-particle interaction and relaxation in 3d-elements from X-ray spectroscopy}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {123}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Any physical system can be described on the level of interacting particles, thus it is of fundamental importance to improve the scientific understanding of interacting many-body systems. This thesis experimentally addresses specific quasi-particle interactions, namely interactions be- tween electrons and between electrons and phonons. It describes the consequential effects of those processes on the electronic structure and the core-hole relaxation pathways in 3d metals. Despite the great amount of experimental and theoretical studies of these interactions and their impact on the behavior of solid-state matter, there are still open questions concerning the cor- responding physical, chemical and mechanical properties of solid-state matter. Especially, the study of 3d metals and their compounds is a great experimental challenge, since those exhibit a variety of spectral features originating from many-body effects such as multiplet splitting, shake up/off satellites, vibrationally excited states or more complex effects like superconductivity and ultrafast demagnetization. In X-ray spectroscopy, these effects often produce overlapping fea- tures, complicating the analysis and limiting the understanding. In this thesis, to overcome the limitations set by conventional X-ray spectroscopy, two different experimental approaches were successfully refined, namely Auger electron photoelectron coincidence spectroscopy (APECS) and temperature-dependent X-ray emission spectroscopy (tXES), which enabled the separation of different core-hole relaxation pathways and the isolation of the impact of specific many-body interactions in the experimental spectra. APECS was utilized at the new Coincidence electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (Co- ESCA) station at BESSY II to study the core-hole decay and electron-correlation effects in single- crystal Ni, Cu and Co. The observation of photoelectrons in coincidence with Auger electrons allows for the separation of the initial and final state effects in the Auger electron spectra. The results show that a Cu LV V Auger spectrum can be represented by broadened atomic multiplets confirming the localized nature of the intermediate core-hole states. In contrast, the Co LV V Auger spectrum is band-like and can be represented by the self-convolution of the valence band. Ni behaves mixed, localized and itinerant. Thus, the Ni Auger spectrum can only be represented by a mixture of atomic multiplet peaks and the self-convoluted valence band. In the case of Ni, the LV V Auger electrons in coincidence with the 6 eV satellite photoelectrons were also stud- ied. Utilizing the core-hole clock method, the lifetime of the localized double-hole intermediate 2 p53d9 states of 1.8 fs could be determined. However, a fraction of these states delocalizes before the Auger decay contributing to the main peak. A similar delocalization was observed for the double-hole states produced by the L2L3M4,5 Coster-Kronig process. Additionally, the influence of surface oxidation on the Ni(111) 3p levels was studied with APECS. The Ni 3p PES spectrum is broad and featureless, due to overlapping many-body effects and gives little chance for exact analysis using conventional photoelectron spectroscopy. Utilizing APECS or precisely the final state selectivity of the method, the spectral width of the 3p levels could be narrowed and their positions and the spin-orbit splitting were determined. Moreover, due to the surface sensitivity of the method, the chemically shifted 3p photoelectron peaks originating from the oxidized surface and the bulk Ni were disentangled. For the study of the atomic electron-phonon spin-flip scattering in 3d metals as a spin-relaxation channel, the tXES method at the SolidFlexRIXS station was developed. The atomic spin-flip scat- tering was studied in single-crystal Ni, Cu, Co and in FeNi alloys, which show considerable dif- ferences in their behavior. The scattering rate in Ni increases with temperature, whereas the rate in Cu and Co remains constant within the measured temperature range up to 1000 K. In FeNi alloys, our results reveal that the spin-flip scattering is restricted by sublattice exchange energies J. The electron-phonon scattering driven spin-flips only appear in the case where the thermal energy ex- ceeds the exchange energy kT > J. This thresholding is an important microscopic process for the description of the sublattice dynamics in alloys, but as shown also relevant for elemental magnetic systems. Overall, the results strongly indicate that the spin-flip probability is correlated with the exchange energy, which might become an important parameter in the ultrafast demagnetization debate. Taken together, the applied experimental approaches allowed to study complex many-body effects in 3d metals. The results show that utilizing APECS enabled the distinction and clear assignment of otherwise overlapping features in AES or PES spectra of Ni, Cu, Co and NiO. This is of fundamental importance for the basic understanding of photoionization and core-hole decay processes but also for the chemical analysis in applied science. The measurement of the atomic electron-phonon spin-flip scattering rate utilizing tXES shows that the electron-phonon spin-flip scattering is a relevant atomic process for the macroscopic demagnetization process. Additionally, a temperature-dependent thresholding mechanism was discovered, which introduces an important dynamic factor into the electron-phonon spin-flip model.}, language = {en} } @article{NiskanenFondellSahleetal.2019, author = {Niskanen, Johannes and Fondell, Mattis and Sahle, Christoph J. and Eckert, Sebastian and Jay, Raphael Martin and Gilmore, Keith and Pietzsch, Annette and Dantz, Marcus and Lu, Xingye and McNally, Daniel E. and Schmitt, Thorsten and Vaz da Cruz, Vinicius and Kimberg, Victor and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Gel'mukhanov, Faris}, title = {Compatibility of quantitative X-ray spectroscopy with continuous distribution models of water at ambient conditions}, series = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}, volume = {116}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}, number = {10}, publisher = {National Acad. of Sciences}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0027-8424}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1815701116}, pages = {4058 -- 4063}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The phase diagram of water harbors controversial views on underlying structural properties of its constituting molecular moieties, its fluctuating hydrogen-bonding network, as well as pair-correlation functions. In this work, long energy-range detection of the X-ray absorption allows us to unambiguously calibrate the spectra for water gas, liquid, and ice by the experimental atomic ionization cross-section. In liquid water, we extract the mean value of 1.74 +/- 2.1\% donated and accepted hydrogen bonds per molecule, pointing to a continuous-distribution model. In addition, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering with unprecedented energy resolution also supports continuous distribution of molecular neighborhoods within liquid water, as do X-ray emission spectra once the femtosecond scattering duration and proton dynamics in resonant X-ray-matter interaction are taken into account. Thus, X-ray spectra of liquid water in ambient conditions can be understood without a two-structure model, whereas the occurrence of nanoscale-length correlations within the continuous distribution remains open.}, language = {en} } @article{ObergGladhAnniyevetal.2015, author = {Oberg, H. and Gladh, J{\"o}rgen and Anniyev, Toyli and Beye, Martin and Coffee, Ryan and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Katayama, T. and Kaya, Sarp and LaRue, Jerry and Mogelhoj, Andreas and Nordlund, Dennis and Ogasawara, Hirohito and Schlotter, William F. and Sellberg, Jonas A. and Sorgenfrei, Florian and Turner, Joshua J. and Wolf, Martin and Wurth, W. and Ostrom, Henrik and Nilsson, Anders and Norskov, Jens K. and Pettersson, Lars G. M.}, title = {Optical laser-induced CO desorption from Ru(0001) monitored with a free-electron X-ray laser: DFT prediction and X-ray confirmation of a precursor state}, series = {Surface science}, volume = {640}, journal = {Surface science}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0039-6028}, doi = {10.1016/j.susc.2015.03.011}, pages = {80 -- 88}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We present density functional theory modeling of time-resolved optical pump/X-ray spectroscopic probe data of CO desorption from Ru(0001). The BEEF van der Waals functional predicts a weakly bound state as a precursor to desorption. The optical pump leads to a near-instantaneous (<100 fs) increase of the electronic temperature to nearly 7000 K. The temperature evolution and energy transfer between electrons, substrate phonons and adsorbate is described by the two-temperature model and found to equilibrate on a timescale of a few picoseconds to an elevated local temperature of similar to 2000K. Estimating the free energy based on the computed potential of mean force along the desorption path, we find an entropic barrier to desorption (and by time-reversal also to adsorption). This entropic barrier separates the chemisorbed and precursor states, and becomes significant at the elevated temperature of the experiment (similar to 1.4 eV at 2000 K). Experimental pump-probe X-ray absorption/X-ray emission spectroscopy indicates population of a precursor state to desorption upon laser-excitation of the system (Dell'Angela et al., 2013). Computing spectra along the desorption path confirms the picture of a weakly bound transient state arising from ultrafast heating of the metal substrate. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{SendAbboudHartmannetal.2013, author = {Send, Sebastian and Abboud, Ali and Hartmann, Robert and Huth, M. and Leitenberger, Wolfram and Pashniak, N. and Schmidt, J. and Str{\"u}der, Lothar and Pietsch, Ullrich}, title = {Characterization of a pnCCD for applications with synchrotron radiation}, series = {Nuclear instruments \& methods in physics research : a journal on accelerators, instrumentation and techniques applied to research in nuclear and atomic physics, materials science and related fields in physics ; A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment}, volume = {711}, journal = {Nuclear instruments \& methods in physics research : a journal on accelerators, instrumentation and techniques applied to research in nuclear and atomic physics, materials science and related fields in physics ; A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment}, number = {5}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0168-9002}, doi = {10.1016/j.nima.2013.01.044}, pages = {132 -- 142}, year = {2013}, abstract = {In this work we study the response of a pnCCD by means of X-ray spectroscopy in the energy range between 6 key and 20 key and by Laue diffraction techniques. The analyses include measurements of characteristic detector parameters like energy resolution, count rate capability and effects of different gain settings. The limit of a single photon counting operation in white beam X-ray diffraction experiments is discussed with regard to the occurrence of pile-up events, for which the energy information about individual photons is lost. In case of monochromatic illumination the pnCCD can be used as a fast conventional CCD with a charge handling capacity (CHC) of about 300,000 electrons per pixel. If the CHC is exceeded, any surplus charge will spill to neighboring pixels perpendicular to the transfer direction due to electrostatic repulsion. The possibilities of increasing the number of storable electrons are investigated for different voltage settings by exposing a single pixel with X-rays generated by a microfocus X-ray source. The pixel binning mode is tested as an alternative approach that enables a pnCCD operation with significantly shorter readout times.}, language = {en} }