Shinohara Yuya, Osaka Taito, Inoue Ichiro, Iwashita Takuya, Dmowski Wojciech, Ryu Chae Woo, Sarathchandran Yadu, Egami Takeshi
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA.
RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Sayo, Hyogo, 679-5198, Japan.
Nat Commun. 2020 Dec 4;11(1):6213. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20036-z.
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.
凭借其卓越的性能和时间结构，X射线自由电子激光能够揭示超快现象的原子尺度细节。产生具有时间延迟的两个X射线脉冲的分束与延迟光学（SDO）技术的最新进展，为在原子尺度上观察动力学提供了光明前景。然而，其脉冲能量不足限制了它的应用，要么只能用于相关长度较长的现象，要么只能用于固定延迟时间的测量。在此我们表明，SDO与X射线自种子技术相结合可增加脉冲能量，并使得在皮秒时间尺度上观察原子尺度动力学成为可能。我们表明，水散射中的散斑对比度如预期的那样取决于延迟时间。我们的结果证明了使用带有种子X射线的SDO进行测量的能力，能够解析其他技术无法触及的时间和空间尺度上的动力学，为研究原子级动力学开辟了机会。
