Opportunities for gas-phase science at short-wavelength free-electron lasers with undulator-based polarization control
Free-electron lasers (FELs) are the world's most brilliant light sources with rapidly evolving technological capabilities in terms of ultrabright and ultrashort pulses over a large range of photon energies. Their revolutionary and innovative developments have opened new fields of science regarding nonlinear light-matter interaction, the investigation of ultrafast processes from specific observer sites, and approaches to imaging matter with atomic resolution. A core aspect of FEL science is the study of isolated and prototypical systems in the gas phase with the possibility of addressing well-defined electronic transitions or particular atomic sites in molecules. Notably for polarization-controlled short-wavelength FELs, the gas phase offers new avenues for investigations of nonlinear and ultrafast phenomena in spin-orientated systems, for decoding the function of the chiral building blocks of life as well as steering reactions and particle emission dynamics in otherwise inaccessible ways. This roadmap comprises descriptions of technological capabilities of facilities worldwide, innovative diagnostics and instrumentation, as well as recent scientific highlights, novel methodology, and mathematical modeling. The experimental and theoretical landscape of using polarization controllable FELs for dichroic light-matter interaction in the gas phase will be discussed and comprehensively outlined to stimulate and strengthen global collaborative efforts of all disciplines.
Authors
- T. Jahnke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1358-5629)
- Olga Smirnova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7746-5733)
- E.A. Schneidmiller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4832-1546)
- S. Reiche (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7797-6736)
- Jonas Wätzel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8817-0933)
- Klaus Bartschat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6215-5014)
- Alberto Lutman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5791-9198)
- Jiawei Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2978-5799)
- Luca Argenti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-4379)
- Primož Rebernik Ribič (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5555-601X)
- Chao Feng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3609-3718)
- Mats Larsson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9784-4151)
- Jamal Berakdar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8727-3981)
- Eduard Prat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7065-7417)
- Vitali Zhaunerchyk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7302-7413)
- Suren Karabekyan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8814-871X)
- Lucas Schwob (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4274-365X)
- Jérémy R. Rouxel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3438-6370)
- C. Vozzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0212-0191)
- Svitozar Serkez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6224-1569)
- G. De Ninno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4648-4413)
- Philipp V. Demekhin
- Wolfram Helml (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1537-2993)
- Zhangfeng Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7963-6439)
- H.-D. Nuhn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2796-8965)
- Nicolas Douguet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0620-4236)
- Marco Calvi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2502-942X)
- Lars Funke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2569-3184)
- Francesca Calegari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3234-7298)
- Nikolay M. Novikovskiy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5781-1862)
- Shaul Mukamel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6015-3135)
- Bangjie Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0313-316X)
- E. Allaria (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9570-6361)
- Kathryn R. Hamilton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8245-0122)
- Sadia Bari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3985-2051)
- Gianluca Geloni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4764-1115)
- Haixiao Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1270-9458)
- Michael Meyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1444-6770)
- Thomas Schmidt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0045-1851)
- Peter Walter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9522-9163)
- Tommaso Mazza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3105-459X)
- Markus Ilchen
- Markus Tischer
- M.V. Yurkov
- R. Dörner
Institutions
- University of Kassel (DE)
- University of Central Florida (US)
- Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- Goethe-Institute United Kingdom (GB)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Stockholm University (SE)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL)
- University of Nova Gorica (SI)
- TU Dortmund University (DE)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A. (IT)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (CN)
- Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie (IT)
- Max-Born-Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (DE)
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (DE)
- Institute of Solid State Physics (CN)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- Technische Universität Berlin (DE)
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (DE)
- Drake University (US)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (DE)
- University of Colorado Denver (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Research
- Published
- 2025-01-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevresearch.7.011001
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.49
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Laserlab-Europe
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Volkswagen Foundation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Office of Science
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
- Basic Energy Sciences
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory