title: Following the dynamics of matter with femtosecond precision using the X-ray streaking method.
abstract: X-ray Free Electron Lasers (FELs) can produce extremely intense and very short pulses, down to below 10 femtoseconds (fs). Among the key applications are ultrafast time-resolved studies of dynamics of matter by observing responses to fast excitation pulses in a pump-probe manner. Detectors with sufficient time resolution for observing these processes are not available. Therefore, such experiments typically measure a sample's full dynamics by repeating multiple pump-probe cycles at different delay times. This conventional method assumes that the sample returns to an identical or very similar state after each cycle. Here we describe a novel approach that can provide a time trace of responses following a single excitation pulse, jitter-free, with fs timing precision. We demonstrate, in an X-ray diffraction experiment, how it can be applied to the investigation of ultrafast irreversible processes.
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: David
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karvinen
authors.affiliation: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sikorski
authors.affiliation: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vartiainen
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Milne
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mozzanica
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kayser
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mohacsi
authors.affiliation: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Carini
authors.affiliation: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki FI-00014, Finland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Färm
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki FI-00014, Finland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ritala
authors.affiliation: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Fritz
authors.affiliation: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Robert