Search Results (14)

Recent achievements in ultrafast spin physics have enabled the use of heterostructures composed of ferromagnetic (FM)/non-magnetic (NM) thin layers for terahertz (THz) generation. The mechanism of THz emission from FM/NM multilayers has been typically ascribed to the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE). In this work, we probe the mechanism of the ISHE by inserting a second ferromagnetic layer in the form of an alloy between the FM/NM system. In particular, by utilizing the co-sputtering technique, we fabricate Fe/L1₀-FePt/Pt ultra-thin heterostructures. We successfully grow the tetragonal phase of FePt (L1₀-phase) as revealed by X-ray diffraction and reflection techniques. We show the strong magnetic coupling between Fe and L1₀-FePt using magneto-optical and Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) magnetometry. Subsequently, by utilizing THz time domain spectroscopy technique, we record the THz emission and thus we the reveal the efficiency of spin-to-charge conversion in Fe/L1₀-FePt/Pt. We establish that Fe/L1₀-FePt/Pt configuration is significantly superior to the Fe/Pt bilayer structure, regarding THz emission amplitude. The unique trilayer structure opens new perspectives in terms of material choices for the future spintronic THz sources. Full article

The discovery of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals ferromagnetic materials opens up new avenues for making devices with high information storage density, ultra-fast response, high integration, and low power consumption. Fe₅GeTe₂ has attracted much attention because of its ferromagnetic transition temperature near room temperature. However, the investigation of its phase transition is rare until now. Here, we have successfully synthesized a single crystal of the layered ferromagnet Fe₅GeTe₂ by chemical vapor phase transport, soon after characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), DC magnetization M(T), and isotherm magnetization M(H) measurements. A paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition is observed at ≈302 K (T_C) in the temperature dependence of the DC magnetic susceptibility of Fe₅GeTe₂. We found an unconventional potential spin glass state in the low-temperature regime that differs from the conventional spin glass states and Griffiths phase (GP) in the high-temperature regime. The physical mechanisms behind the potential spin glass state of Fe₅GeTe₂ at low temperatures and the Griffith phase at high temperatures need to be further investigated. Full article

Background/Objectives: Brain cancer is notoriously resistant to traditional treatments, including radiotherapy. Microbeam radiation therapy (MRT), arrays of ultra-fast synchrotron X-ray beams tens of micrometres wide (called peaks) and spaced hundreds of micrometres apart (valleys), is an effective alternative to conventional treatments. MRT’s advantage is that normal tissues can be spared from harm whilst maintaining tumour control. Combining MRT with targeted radiosensitisers, such as nanoparticles, chemotherapeutic drugs, and halogenated pyrimidine drugs, can further improve radiotherapy by enhancing radiation damage. However, the underlying mechanisms of MRT are still being understood, which is essential to ensuring the reliable and successful use of MRT. Methods: An in vitro study was performed using γH2AX imaging, and quantification was performed via confocal microscopy and a clonogenic cell survival assay. Results: We show that methotrexate chemotherapeutics and iododeoxyuridine enhance MRT cell-killing and thulium oxide nanoparticles (TmNPs) broaden MRT peaks, and using γH2AX immunofluorescent confocal microscopy to quantify DNA damage, we further our knowledge of MRT mechanisms. γH2AX images verify the biological responses of cells aligning with the physical collimation of MRT, and we can accurately measure MRT microbeam characteristics bio-dosimetrically. The peak-to-valley dose ratio (PVDR), the ratio of the peak dose to the valley dose that characterises an MRT field, was accurately measured biologically using γH2AX imaging, despite studies previously finding this challenging. Conclusions: The measurement of biological PVDR has been performed for the first time with high-Z radiosensitisers, including nanoparticles, and several novel radiosensitiser-enhanced MRT mechanisms were discovered. Our results deepen our understanding of MRT with radiosensitisers, and can contribute to its accurate and future successful use in treating cancer. Full article

Inorganic scintillators activated by charge transfer luminescence Yb³⁺ are considered promising ultrafast material to break the ps timing barrier for future high energy physics applications. Inorganic scintillators in ceramic form are potentially more cost-effective than crystals because of their lower fabrication temperature and no need for aftergrowth mechanical processing. This paper reports an investigation on Lu₂O₃:Yb and Lu_2xY_2(1−x)O₃:Yb scintillating ceramic samples fabricated by Radiation Monitoring Devices Inc. All samples show X-ray excited luminescence peaked at 370 nm. Ultrafast decay time of 1.1 ns was observed by using a microchannel plate-photomultiplier tube-based test bench at Caltech. Considering its intrinsic high density (9.4 g/cm³), Lu₂O₃:Yb ceramics are promising for future time of fight application for high energy physics experiments. Full article

Free-electron lasers (FELs) are the most advanced class of light-sources, by virtue of their unique capability to lase high-brightness pulses characterized by wavelengths spanning the extreme-ultraviolet, the soft and hard X-ray spectral domains, as well as by temporal lengths lying in the femtosecond (fs) timescale. The next step to push the current standards in ultrafast X-ray science is strongly linked to the possibility of engineering and exploiting time-resolved experiments exclusively for FELs pulses, ideally having different colors tunable at specific electronic resonance of the chemical elements. At the seeded FERMI FEL (Trieste, Italy) this goal is committed to the optical device known as AC/DC, which stands for the auto correlator/delay creator. AC/DC is designed to double the incoming FEL pulse splitting the photon beam by inserting a grazing incidence flat mirror, thus preserving the spectral and temporal properties, and further delaying one of these two pulses in time. It can independently tune the FEL pulses fluence on the two optical paths by means of solid-state filters, too. Here, we present a detailed description about this optical device. Strong emphasis is dedicated to the AC/DC opto-mechanical design and to the laser-based feedback systems implemented to compensate for any mismatch affecting the FEL optical trajectory, ascribable to both mechanical imperfections and paraxial errors rising during a temporal delay scan. Full article

With the growing demand from scientific projects such as the X-ray free electron laser (XFEL), ultrafast electron diffraction/microscopy (UED/UEM) and electron ion collider (EIC), the semiconductor photocathode, which is a key technique for a high brightness electron source, has been widely studied in China. Several fabrication systems have been designed and constructed in different institutes and the vacuum of most systems is in the low 10⁻⁸ Pa level to grow a high QE and long lifetime photocathode. The QE, dark lifetime/bunch lifetime, spectral response and QE map of photocathodes with different kinds of materials, such as bialkali (K₂CsSb, K₂NaSb, etc.), Cs₂Te and GaAs, have been investigated. These photocathodes will be used to deliver electron beams in a high voltage DC gun, a normal conducting RF gun, and an SRF gun. The emission physics of the semiconductor photocathode and intrinsic emittance reduction are also studied. Full article

The breakthrough in water electrolysis technology for the sustainable production of H₂, considered as a future fuel, is currently hampered by the development of tough electrocatalytic materials. We report a new strategy of fabricating conducting polymer-derived nanostructured materials to accelerate the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and water splitting. Extended physical (XRD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX)) and electrochemical (cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)) methods were merged to precisely characterize the as-synthesized iridium and ruthenium modified polyaniline (PANI) materials and interrogate their efficiency. The presence of Ir(+III) cations during polymerization leads to the formation of Ir metal nanoparticles, while Ru(+III) induces the formation of RuO₂ oxide nanoparticles by thermal treatment; they are therefore methods for the on-demand production of oxide or metal nanostructured electrocatalysts. The findings from using 0.5 M H₂SO₄ highlight an ultrafast electrochemical kinetic of the material PANI-Ir for HER (36 − 0 = 36 mV overpotential to reach 10 mA cm⁻² at 21 mV dec⁻¹), and of PANI-Ru for OER (1.47 − 1.23 = 240 mV overpotential to reach 10 mA cm⁻² at 47 mV dec⁻¹), resulting in an efficient water splitting exactly at its thermoneutral cell voltage of 1.45 V, and satisfactory durability (96 h). Full article

Electron coherence is a fundamental quantum phenomenon in today’s ultrafast physics and chemistry research. Based on attosecond pump–probe schemes, ultrafast X-ray photoelectron imaging of molecules was used to monitor the coherent electron dynamics which is created by an XUV pulse. We performed simulations on the molecular ion H ${}_2^{+}$ by numerically solving time-dependent Schrödinger equations. It was found that the X-ray photoelectron angular and momentum distributions depend on the time delay between the XUV pump and soft X-ray probe pulses. Varying the polarization and helicity of the soft X-ray probe pulse gave rise to a modulation of the time-resolved photoelectron distributions. The present results provide a new approach for exploring ultrafast coherent electron dynamics and charge migration in reactions of molecules on the attosecond time scale. Full article

We present a detailed investigation of X-ray emission from both flat and nanowire zinc oxide targets irradiated by 60 fs 5 × 10¹⁶ W/cm² intensity laser pulses at a 0.8 µm wavelength. It is shown that the fluence of the emitted hard X-ray radiation in the spectral range 150–800 keV is enhanced by at least one order of magnitude for nanowire targets compared to the emission from a flat surface, whereas the characteristic K_α line emission (8.64 keV) is insensitive to the target morphology. Furthermore, we provide evidence for a dramatic increase of the fast electron flux from the front side of the nanostructured targets. We suggest that targets with nanowire morphology may advance development of compact ultrafast X-ray sources with an enhanced flux of hard X-ray emission that could find wide applications in highenergy density (HED) physics. Full article

The advent of ultrafast X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) opens the tantalizing possibility of the atomic-resolution imaging of reproducible objects such as viruses, nanoparticles, single molecules, clusters, and perhaps biological cells, achieving a resolution for single particle imaging better than a few tens of nanometers. Improving upon this is a significant challenge which has been the focus of a global single particle imaging (SPI) initiative launched in December 2014 at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, USA. A roadmap was outlined, and significant multi-disciplinary effort has since been devoted to work on the technical challenges of SPI such as radiation damage, beam characterization, beamline instrumentation and optics, sample preparation and delivery and algorithm development at multiple institutions involved in the SPI initiative. Currently, the SPI initiative has achieved 3D imaging of rice dwarf virus (RDV) and coliphage PR772 viruses at ~10 nm resolution by using soft X-ray FEL pulses at the Atomic Molecular and Optical (AMO) instrument of LCLS. Meanwhile, diffraction patterns with signal above noise up to the corner of the detector with a resolution of ~6 Ångström (Å) were also recorded with hard X-rays at the Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) instrument, also at LCLS. Achieving atomic resolution is truly a grand challenge and there is still a long way to go in light of recent developments in electron microscopy. However, the potential for studying dynamics at physiological conditions and capturing ultrafast biological, chemical and physical processes represents a tremendous potential application, attracting continued interest in pursuing further method development. In this paper, we give a brief introduction of SPI developments and look ahead to further method development. Full article

For the investigation of processes happening on the time scale of the motion of bound electrons, well-controlled X-ray pulses with durations in the few-femtosecond and even sub-femtosecond range are a necessary prerequisite. Novel free-electron lasers sources provide these ultrashort, high-brightness X-ray pulses, but their unique aspects open up concomitant challenges for their characterization on a suitable time scale. In this review paper we describe progress and results of recent work on ultrafast pulse characterization at soft and hard X-ray free-electron lasers. We report on different approaches to laser-assisted time-domain measurements, with specific focus on single-shot characterization of ultrashort X-ray pulses from self-amplified spontaneous emission-based and seeded free-electron lasers. The method relying on the sideband measurement of X-ray electron ionization in the presence of a dressing optical laser field is described first. When the X-ray pulse duration is shorter than half the oscillation period of the streaking field, few-femtosecond characterization becomes feasible via linear streaking spectroscopy. Finally, using terahertz fields alleviates the issue of arrival time jitter between streaking laser and X-ray pulse, but compromises the achievable temporal resolution. Possible solutions to these remaining challenges for single-shot, full time–energy characterization of X-ray free-electron laser pulses are proposed in the outlook at the end of the review. Full article

The development of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has launched a new era in X-ray science by providing ultrafast coherent X-ray pulses with a peak brightness that is approximately one billion times higher than previous X-ray sources. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) facility at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the world’s first hard X-ray FEL, has already demonstrated a tremendous scientific impact across broad areas of science. Here, a few of the more recent representative highlights from LCLS are presented in the areas of atomic, molecular, and optical science; chemistry; condensed matter physics; matter in extreme conditions; and biology. This paper also outlines the near term upgrade (LCLS-II) and motivating science opportunities for ultrafast X-rays in the 0.25–5 keV range at repetition rates up to 1 MHz. Future plans to extend the X-ray energy reach to beyond 13 keV (<1 Å) at high repetition rate (LCLS-II-HE) are envisioned, motivated by compelling new science of structural dynamics at the atomic scale. Full article

Colloidal gold nanoparticles are a widespread nanomaterial with many potential applications, but their aggregation in suspension is a critical issue which is usually prevented by organic surfactants. This solution has some drawbacks, such as material contamination and modifications of its functional properties. The gold nanoparticles presented in this work have been synthesized by ultra-fast laser ablation in liquid, which addresses the above issues by overcoating the metal nanoparticles with an oxide layer. The main focus of the work is in the characterization of the oxidized gold nanoparticles, which were made first in solution by means of dynamic light scattering and optical spectroscopy, and then in dried form by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and finally by surface potential measurements with atomic force microscopy. The light scattering assessed the nanoscale size of the formed particles and provided insight in their stability. The nanoparticles’ size was confirmed by direct imaging in transmission electron microscopy, and their crystalline nature was disclosed by X-ray diffraction. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed measurements compatible with the presence of surface oxide, which was confirmed by the surface potential measurements, which are the novel point of the present work. In conclusion, the method of laser ablation in liquid for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles has been presented, and the advantage of this physical approach, consisting of coating the nanoparticles in situ with gold oxide which provides the required morphological and chemical stability without organic surfactants, has been confirmed by using scanning Kelvin probe microscopy for the first time. Full article

Biological samples are highly radiation sensitive. The rapid progress of their radiation damage prevents accurate structure determination of single macromolecular assemblies in standard diffraction experiments. However, computer simulations of the damage formation have shown that the radiation tolerance might be extended at very high intensities with ultrafast imaging such as is possible with the presently developed and operating x-ray free-electron lasers. Recent experiments with free-electron lasers on nanocrystals have demonstrated proof of the imaging principle at resolutions down to 1:6 Angstroms. However, there are still many physical and technical problems to be clarified on the way to imaging of single biomolecules at atomic resolution. In particular, theoretical simulations try to address an important question: How does the radiation damage progressing within an imaged single object limit the structural information about this object recorded in its diffraction image during a 3D imaging experiment? This information is crucial for adjusting pulse parameters during imaging so that high-resolution diffraction patterns can be obtained. Further, dynamics simulations should be used to verify the accuracy of the structure reconstruction performed from the experimental data. This is an important issue as the experimentally recorded diffraction signal is recorded from radiation-damaged samples. It also contains various kinds of background. In contrast, the currently used reconstruction algorithms assume perfectly coherent scattering patterns with shot noise only. In this review paper, we discuss the most important processes and effects relevant for imaging-related simulations that are not yet fully understood, or omitted in the irradiation description. We give estimates for their contribution to the overall radiation damage. In this way we can identify unsolved issues and challenges for simulations of x-ray irradiated single molecules relevant for imaging studies. They should be addressed during further development of these simulation tools. Full article