| 1. |
- Diesen, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Ultrafast Adsorbate Excitation Probed with Subpicosecond-Resolution X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy
- 2021
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 127:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We use a pump-probe scheme to measure the time evolution of the C K-edge x-ray absorption spectrum from CO/Ru(0001) after excitation by an ultrashort high-intensity optical laser pulse. Because of the short duration of the x-ray probe pulse and precise control of the pulse delay, the excitation-induced dynamics during the first picosecond after the pump can be resolved with unprecedented time resolution. By comparing with density functional theory spectrum calculations, we find high excitation of the internal stretch and frustrated rotation modes occurring within 200 fs of laser excitation, as well as thermalization of the system in the picosecond regime. The ∼100 fs initial excitation of these CO vibrational modes is not readily rationalized by traditional theories of nonadiabatic coupling of adsorbates to metal surfaces, e.g., electronic frictions based on first order electron-phonon coupling or transient population of adsorbate resonances. We suggest that coupling of the adsorbate to nonthermalized electron-hole pairs is responsible for the ultrafast initial excitation of the modes.
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| 2. |
- Hennecke, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Ultrafast opto-magnetic effects in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range
- 2024
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Ingår i: Communications Physics. - : Springer Nature. - 2399-3650. ; 7:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coherent light-matter interactions mediated by opto-magnetic phenomena like the inverse Faraday effect (IFE) are expected to provide a non-thermal pathway for ultrafast manipulation of magnetism on timescales as short as the excitation pulse itself. As the IFE scales with the spin-orbit coupling strength of the involved electronic states, photo-exciting the strongly spin-orbit coupled core-level electrons in magnetic materials appears as an appealing method to transiently generate large opto-magnetic moments. Here, we investigate this scenario in a ferrimagnetic GdFeCo alloy by using intense and circularly polarized pulses of extreme ultraviolet radiation. Our results reveal ultrafast and strong helicity-dependent magnetic effects which are in line with the characteristic fingerprints of an IFE, corroborated by ab initio opto-magnetic IFE theory and atomistic spin dynamics simulations.
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| 3. |
- LaRue, Jerry, et al.
(författare)
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Symmetry-resolved CO desorption and oxidation dynamics on O/Ru(0001) probed at the C K-edge by ultrafast x-ray spectroscopy
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Chemical Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-9606 .- 1089-7690. ; 157:16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on carbon monoxide desorption and oxidation induced by 400 nm femtosecond laser excitation on the O/Ru(0001) surface probed by time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy (TR-XAS) at the carbon K-edge. The experiments were performed under constant background pressures of CO (6 × 10−8 Torr) and O2 (3 × 10−8 Torr). Under these conditions, we detect two transient CO species with narrow 2π* peaks, suggesting little 2π* interaction with the surface. Based on polarization measurements, we find that these two species have opposing orientations: (1) CO favoring a more perpendicular orientation and (2) CO favoring a more parallel orientation with respect to the surface. We also directly detect gas-phase CO2 using a mass spectrometer and observe weak signatures of bent adsorbed CO2 at slightly higher x-ray energies than the 2π* region. These results are compared to previously reported TR-XAS results at the O K-edge, where the CO background pressure was three times lower (2 × 10−8 Torr) while maintaining the same O2 pressure. At the lower CO pressure, in the CO 2π* region, we observed adsorbed CO and a distribution of OC–O bond lengths close to the CO oxidation transition state, with little indication of gas-like CO. The shift toward “gas-like” CO species may be explained by the higher CO exposure, which blocks O adsorption, decreasing O coverage and increasing CO coverage. These effects decrease the CO desorption barrier through dipole–dipole interaction while simultaneously increasing the CO oxidation barrier.
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| 4. |
- Schreck, Simon, et al.
(författare)
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Atom-Specific Probing of Electron Dynamics in an Atomic Adsorbate by Time-Resolved X-Ray Spectroscopy
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 129:27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The electronic excitation occurring on adsorbates at ultrafast timescales from optical lasers that initiate surface chemical reactions is still an open question. Here, we report the ultrafast temporal evolution of x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) of a simple well-known adsorbate prototype system, namely carbon (C) atoms adsorbed on a nickel [Ni(100)] surface, following intense laser optical pumping at 400 nm. We observe ultrafast (∼100 fs) changes in both XAS and XES showing clear signatures of the formation of a hot electron-hole pair distribution on the adsorbate. This is followed by slower changes on a few picoseconds timescale, shown to be consistent with thermalization of the complete C/Ni system. Density functional theory spectrum simulations support this interpretation.
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| 5. |
- Wang, Hsin-Yi, et al.
(författare)
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Time-resolved observation of transient precursor state of CO on Ru(0001) using carbon K-edge spectroscopy
- 2020
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Ingår i: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 22:5, s. 2677-2684
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The transient dynamics of carbon monoxide (CO) molecules on a Ru(0001) surface following femtosecond optical laser pump excitation has been studied by monitoring changes in the unoccupied electronic structure using an ultrafast X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) probe. The particular symmetry of perpendicularly chemisorbed CO on the surface is exploited to investigate how the molecular orientation changes with time by varying the polarization of the FEL pulses. The time evolution of spectral features corresponding to the desorption precursor state was well distinguished due to the narrow line-width of the C K-edge in the X-ray absorption (XA) spectrum, illustrating that CO molecules in the precursor state rotated freely and resided on the surface for several picoseconds. Most of the CO molecules trapped in the precursor state ultimately cooled back down to the chemisorbed state, while we estimate that ∼14.5 ± 4.9% of the molecules in the precursor state desorbed into the gas phase. It was also observed that chemisorbed CO molecules diffused over the metal surface from on-top sites toward highly coordinated sites. In addition, a new “vibrationally hot precursor” state was identified in the polarization-dependent XA spectra.
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| 6. |
- Zhang, Xin, et al.
(författare)
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An Integrated Bulk and Surface Modification Strategy for Gas-Quenched Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells with Efficiencies Exceeding 22%
- 2022
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Ingår i: Solar RRL. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2367-198X. ; 6:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs) prepared by the antisolvent method have achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of over 23%, but they are not ideal for device upscaling. In contrast, gas-quenched PSCs offer great potential for upscaling, but their performance still lags behind. Herein, the gas-quenched films through both surface and bulk modifications are upgraded. First, a novel surface modifier, benzylammonium thiocyanate, is found to allow remarkably improved surface properties, but the PCE gain is limited by the existence of longitudinally multiple grains. Thus, methylammonium chloride additive as a second modifier to realize monolithic grains is further utilized. Such an integrated strategy enables the average open-circuit voltage of the gas-quenched PSCs to increase from 1.08 to 1.15 V, leading to a champion PCE of 22.3%. Moreover, the unencapsulated device shows negligible degradation after 150 h of maximum power point operation under simulated 1 sun illumination in N2.
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