OP Sesión -Tracking ultrafast structural dynamics in condensed phase matter using X-ray free electron lasers

With the advent of soft- and hard X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFEL) sources, entirely new scientific opportunities and prospects have been become available in the field of structural studies. One of the most unprecedented features of XFELs is their ability to produce high intensity and fully coherent pulsed X-ray beams, with single pulse duration well below 100 femtoseconds (1 fs =10^-15 s). This property allows dynamical studies of light-matter interactions virtually in any medium on the very fundamental timescales of interatomic motions, from gas-phase to complex strongly correlated solids, high-temperature superconductors, biomolecules and various nanomaterials.

In this seminar I will present a state-of-the-art overview of the abovementioned research venues, which highly benefit from the continuous progress in the field of XFEL technology. In particular, I will focus on those aspects, which profit most from the very high temporal resolution achievable in time-resolved XFEL experiments on combination with atomic spatial resolution.