Split-pulse X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy with seeded X-rays from X-ray laser to study atomic-level dynamics

Yuya Shinohara, Taito Osaka, Ichiro Inoue, Takuya Iwashita, Wojciech Dmowski, Chae Woo Ryu, Yadu Sarathchandran, Takeshi Egami

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20 Scopus citations

Abstract

With their brilliance and temporal structure, X-ray free-electron laser can unveil atomic-scale details of ultrafast phenomena. Recent progress in split-and-delay optics (SDO), which produces two X-ray pulses with time-delays, offers bright prospects for observing dynamics at the atomic-scale. However, their insufficient pulse energy has limited its application either to phenomena with longer correlation length or to measurement with a fixed delay-time. Here we show that the combination of the SDO and self-seeding of X-rays increases the pulse energy and makes it possible to observe the atomic-scale dynamics in a timescale of picoseconds. We show that the speckle contrast in scattering from water depends on the delay-time as expected. Our results demonstrate the capability of measurement using the SDO with seeded X-rays for resolving the dynamics in temporal and spatial scales that are not accessible by other techniques, opening opportunities for studying the atomic-level dynamics.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6213
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2020

Funding

X-ray scattering work by Y. Shinohara, W.D., C.W.R., and T.E. was supported by U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering. Work by T.O. was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. 18K18307) and work by I.I. was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. 19K20604). The experiments at SACLA were carried out under the approval of JASRI (Proposal Nos. 2018B8041, 2019A8043, and 2019B8011).

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