TY - JOUR A1 - Battistoni, A. A1 - Dürr, H. A. A1 - Gühr, Markus A1 - Wolf, Thomas J. A. T1 - A tilted pulse-front setup for femtosecond transient grating spectroscopy in highly non-collinear geometries JF - Journal of optics N2 - We demonstrate a tilted pulse-front transient grating (TG) technique that allows to optimally utilize time resolution as well as TG line density while probing under grazing incidence as typically done in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) or soft x-ray (SXR) experiments. Our optical setup adapts the pulse front tilt of the two pulses that create the TG to the grazing incident pulse. We demonstrate the technique using all 800 nm femtosecond laser pulses for TG generation on a vanadium dioxide film. We probe that grating via diffraction of a third 800 nm pulse. The time resolution of 90 fs is an improvement by a factor of 30 compared to our previous experiments on the same system. The scheme paves the way for EUV and SXR probing of optically induced TGs on any material. KW - transient grating spectroscopy KW - ultrafast spectroscopy KW - pulse front matching Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/2040-8986/aad60a SN - 2040-8978 SN - 2040-8986 VL - 20 IS - 9 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ehlert, Christopher A1 - Gühr, Markus A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - An efficient first principles method for molecular pump-probe NEXAFS spectra BT - application to thymine and azobenzene JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr N2 - Pump-probe near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (PP-NEXAFS) spectra of molecules offer insight into valence-excited states, even if optically dark. In PP-NEXAFS spectroscopy, the molecule is "pumped" by UV or visible light enforcing a valence excitation, followed by an X-ray "probe" exciting core electrons into (now) partially empty valence orbitals. Calculations of PP-NEXAFS have so far been done by costly, correlated wavefunction methods which are not easily applicable to medium-sized or large molecules. Here we propose an efficient, first principles method based on density functional theory in combination with the transition potential and Delta SCF methodology (TP-DFT/Delta SCF) to compute molecular ground state and PP-NEXAFS spectra. We apply the method to n ->pi* pump/O-K-edge NEXAFS probe spectroscopy of thymine (for which both experimental and other theoretical data exist) and to n -> pi* or pi -> pi* pump/N-K-edge NEXAFS probe spectroscopies of trans-and cis-azobenzene. Published by AIP Publishing. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5050488 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 149 IS - 14 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gessner, Oliver A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Monitoring Ultrafast Chemical Dynamics by Time-Domain X-ray Photo- and Auger-Electron Spectroscopy JF - Accounts of chemical research N2 - The directed flow of charge and energy is at the heart of all chemical processes. Extraordinary efforts are underway to monitor and understand the concerted motion of electrons and nuclei with ever increasing spatial and temporal sensitivity. The element specificity, chemical sensitivity, and temporal resolution of ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy techniques hold great promise to provide new insight into the fundamental interactions underlying chemical dynamics in systems ranging from isolated molecules to application-like devices. Here, we focus on the potential of ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy techniques based on the detection of photo- and Auger electrons to provide new fundamental insight into photochemical processes of systems with various degrees of complexity. Isolated nucleobases provide an excellent testing ground for our most fundamental understanding of intramolecular coupling between electrons and nuclei beyond the traditionally applied Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Ultrafast electronic relaxation dynamics enabled by the breakdown of this approximation is the major component of the nucleobase photoprotection mechanisms. Transient X-ray induced Auger electron spectroscopy on photoexcited thymine molecules provides atomic-site specific details of the extremely efficient coupling that converts potentially bond changing ultraviolet photon energy into benign heat. In particular, the time-dependent spectral shift of a specific Auger band is sensitive to the length of a single bond within the molecule. The X-ray induced Auger transients show evidence for an electronic transition out of the initially excited state within only similar to 200 fs in contrast to theoretically predicted picosecond population trapping behind a reaction barrier. Photoinduced charge transfer dynamics between transition metal complexes and semiconductor nanostructures are of central importance for many emerging energy and climate relevant technologies. Numerous demonstrations of photovoltaic and photocatalytic activity have been performed based on the combination of strong light absorption in dye molecules with charge separation and transport in adjacent semiconductor nanostructures. However, a fundamental understanding of the enabling and limiting dynamics on critical atomic length- and time scales is often still lacking. Femtosecond time-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is employed to gain a better understanding of a short-lived intermediate that may be linked to the unexpectedly limited performance of ZnO based dye-sensitized solar cells by delaying the generation of free charge carriers. The transient spectra strongly suggest that photoexcited dye molecules attached to ZnO nanocrystals inject their charges into the substrate within less than 1 ps but the electrons are then temporarily trapped at the surface of the semiconductor in direct vicinity of the injecting molecules. The experiments are extended to monitor the electronic response of the semiconductor substrate to the collective injection from a monolayer of dye molecules and the subsequent electron-ion recombination dynamics. The results indicate some qualitative similarities but quantitative differences between the recombination dynamics at molecule-semiconductor interfaces and previously studied bulk-surface electron-hole recombination dynamics in photoexcited semiconductors. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00361 SN - 0001-4842 SN - 1520-4898 VL - 49 SP - 138 EP - 145 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Ultrafast Soft X-ray Probing of Gas Phase Molecular Dynamics N2 - The molecular ability to selectively and efficiently convert sunlight into other forms of energy like heat, bond change, or charge separation is truly remarkable. The decisive steps in these transformations often happen on a femtosecond timescale and require transitions among different electronic states that violate the Born-Oppenheimer approximation (BOA). Non-BOA transitions pose challenges to both theory and experiment. From a theoretical point of view, excited state dynamics and nonadiabatic transitions both are difficult problems (see Figure 1(a)). However, the theory on non-BOA dynamics has advanced significantly over the last two decades. Full dynamical simulations for molecules of the size of nucleobases have been possible for a couple of years and allow predictions of experimental observables like photoelectron energy or ion yield. The availability of these calculations for isolated molecules has spurred new experimental efforts to develop methods that are sufficiently different from all optical techniques. For determination of transient molecular structure, femtosecond X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction have been implemented on optically excited molecules. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 268 Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-97215 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holzmeier, Fabian A1 - Wolf, Thomas J. A. A1 - Gienger, Christian A1 - Wagner, Isabella A1 - Bozek, J. A1 - Nandi, S. A1 - Nicolas, C. A1 - Fischer, Ingo A1 - Gühr, Markus A1 - Fink, Reinhold F. T1 - Normal and resonant Auger spectroscopy of isocyanic acid, HNCO JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr N2 - In this paper, we investigate HNCO by resonant and nonresonant Auger electron spectroscopy at the K-edges of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, employing soft X-ray synchrotron radiation. In comparison with the isosteric but linear CO2 molecule, spectra of the bent HNCO molecule are similar but more complex due to its reduced symmetry, wherein the degeneracy of the π-orbitals is lifted. Resonant Auger electron spectra are presented at different photon energies over the first core-excited 1s → 10a′ resonance. All Auger electron spectra are assigned based on ab initio configuration interaction computations combined with the one-center approximation for Auger intensities and moment theory to consider vibrational motion. The calculated spectra were scaled by a newly introduced energy scaling factor, and generally, good agreement is found between experiment and theory for normal as well as resonant Auger electron spectra. A comparison of resonant Auger spectra with nonresonant Auger structures shows a slight broadening as well as a shift of the former spectra between −8 and −9 eV due to the spectating electron. Since HNCO is a small molecule and contains the four most abundant atoms of organic molecules, the reported Auger electron decay spectra will provide a benchmark for further theoretical approaches in the computation of core electron spectra. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5030621 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 149 IS - 3 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lever, Fabiano A1 - Mayer, Dennis A1 - Metje, Jan A1 - Alisauskas, Skirmantas A1 - Calegari, Francesca A1 - Düsterer, Stefan A1 - Feifel, Raimund A1 - Niebuhr, Mario A1 - Manschwetus, Bastian A1 - Kuhlmann, Marion A1 - Mazza, Tommaso A1 - Robinson, Matthew Scott A1 - Squibb, Richard J. A1 - Trabattoni, Andrea A1 - Wallner, Måns A1 - Wolf, Thomas J. A. A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Core-level spectroscopy of 2-thiouracil at the sulfur L1 and L2,3 edges utilizing a SASE free-electron-laser T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - In this paper, we report X-ray absorption and core-level electron spectra of the nucleobase derivative 2-thiouracil at the sulfur L1- and L2,3-edges. We used soft X-rays from the free-electron laser FLASH2 for the excitation of isolated molecules and dispersed the outgoing electrons with a magnetic bottle spectrometer. We identified photoelectrons from the 2p core orbital, accompanied by an electron correlation satellite, as well as resonant and non-resonant Coster–Kronig and Auger–Meitner emission at the L1- and L2,3-edges, respectively. We used the electron yield to construct X-ray absorption spectra at the two edges. The experimental data obtained are put in the context of the literature currently available on sulfur core-level and 2-thiouracil spectroscopy. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1180 KW - X-ray KW - photoelectron KW - sulfur KW - thiouracil KW - nucleobases KW - Coster–Kronig KW - Auger–Meitner KW - NEXAFS KW - FLASH Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-524091 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 21 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lever, Fabiano A1 - Mayer, Dennis A1 - Metje, Jan A1 - Alisauskas, Skirmantas A1 - Calegari, Francesca A1 - Düsterer, Stefan A1 - Feifel, Raimund A1 - Niebuhr, Mario A1 - Manschwetus, Bastian A1 - Kuhlmann, Marion A1 - Mazza, Tommaso A1 - Robinson, Matthew Scott A1 - Squibb, Richard J. A1 - Trabattoni, Andrea A1 - Wallner, Måns A1 - Wolf, Thomas J. A. A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Core-level spectroscopy of 2-thiouracil at the sulfur L1 and L2,3 edges utilizing a SASE free-electron-laser JF - Molecules N2 - In this paper, we report X-ray absorption and core-level electron spectra of the nucleobase derivative 2-thiouracil at the sulfur L1- and L2,3-edges. We used soft X-rays from the free-electron laser FLASH2 for the excitation of isolated molecules and dispersed the outgoing electrons with a magnetic bottle spectrometer. We identified photoelectrons from the 2p core orbital, accompanied by an electron correlation satellite, as well as resonant and non-resonant Coster–Kronig and Auger–Meitner emission at the L1- and L2,3-edges, respectively. We used the electron yield to construct X-ray absorption spectra at the two edges. The experimental data obtained are put in the context of the literature currently available on sulfur core-level and 2-thiouracil spectroscopy. KW - X-ray KW - photoelectron KW - sulfur KW - thiouracil KW - nucleobases KW - Coster–Kronig KW - Auger–Meitner KW - NEXAFS KW - FLASH Y1 - 2021 SN - 1420-3049 VL - 26 IS - 21 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lever, Fabiano A1 - Ramelow, Sven A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Effects of time-energy correlation strength in molecular entangled photon spectroscopy JF - Physical review : A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics N2 - In this paper, we explore the time-energy domain quantum-classical transition comparing a classical pump-probe experiment on a diatomic molecule to its quantum enhanced counterpart, where the pump and probe pulses are substituted by the signal and idler beams of a spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) source. Absorption of biphotons generated with SPDC exploits quantum time-energy entanglement to enhance the overall yield and selectivity of the process, when compared with a classical pump-probe setup, while maintaining femtosecond time resolution. We systematically study the effects of correlation strength on process efficiency and selectivity, comparing the results to classical pump-probe spectra. An excitation scheme to improve the yield based on spectral narrowing of biphotons is shown. The results indicate that the quantum improvements in yield are caused by a more efficient use of the total power available for the process. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.100.053844 SN - 2469-9926 SN - 2469-9934 VL - 100 IS - 5 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mayer, Dennis A1 - Lever, Fabiano A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Data analysis procedures for time-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy at a SASE free-electron-laser JF - Journal of physics : B, Atomic, molecular and optical physics N2 - The random nature of self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) is a well-known challenge for x-ray core level spectroscopy at SASE free-electron lasers (FELs). Especially in time-resolved experiments that require a combination of good temporal and spectral resolution the jitter and drifts in the spectral characteristics, relative arrival time as well as power fluctuations can smear out spectral-temporal features. We present a combination of methods for the analysis of time-resolved photoelectron spectra based on power and time corrections as well as self-referencing of a strong photoelectron line. Based on sulfur 2p photoelectron spectra of 2-thiouracil taken at the SASE FEL FLASH2, we show that it is possible to correct for some of the photon energy drift and jitter even when reliable shot-to-shot photon energy data is not available. The quality of pump-probe difference spectra improves as random jumps in energy between delay points reduce significantly. The data analysis allows to identify coherent oscillations of 1 eV shift on the mean photoelectron line of 4 eV width with an error of less than 0.1 eV. KW - free-electron laser KW - photoelectron spectroscopy KW - FLASH Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6455/ac3c91 SN - 0953-4075 SN - 1361-6455 VL - 55 IS - 5 PB - IOP Publ. CY - Bristol ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mayer, Dennis A1 - Lever, Fabiano A1 - Picconi, David A1 - Metje, Jan A1 - Ališauskas, Skirmantas A1 - Calegari, Francesca A1 - Düsterer, Stefan A1 - Ehlert, Christopher A1 - Feifel, Raimund A1 - Niebuhr, Mario A1 - Manschwetus, Bastian A1 - Kuhlmann, Marion A1 - Mazza, Tommaso A1 - Robinson, Matthew Scott A1 - Squibb, Richard James A1 - Trabattoni, Andrea A1 - Wallner, Måns A1 - Saalfrank, Peter A1 - Wolf, Thomas J. A. A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Following excited-state chemical shifts in molecular ultrafast x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The conversion of photon energy into other energetic forms in molecules is accompanied by charge moving on ultrafast timescales. We directly observe the charge motion at a specific site in an electronically excited molecule using time-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (TR-XPS). We extend the concept of static chemical shift from conventional XPS by the excited-state chemical shift (ESCS), which is connected to the charge in the framework of a potential model. This allows us to invert TR-XPS spectra to the dynamic charge at a specific atom. We demonstrate the power of TR-XPS by using sulphur 2p-core-electron-emission probing to study the UV-excited dynamics of 2-thiouracil. The method allows us to discover that a major part of the population relaxes to the molecular ground state within 220–250 fs. In addition, a 250-fs oscillation, visible in the kinetic energy of the TR-XPS, reveals a coherent exchange of population among electronic states. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1301 Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-577442 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1301 ER -