HELIOS

The ATTO group is participating in the Helmholtz-Lund International Graduate School (HELIOS). HELIOS is an international graduate school merging competences from different physics domains in instrumentation development and control as well as data acquisition and data handling, to tackle specific scientific challenges and to prepare young scientists for the next generation of instruments. In this context, the ATTO group is mainly involved in two projects:

P2 - Attosecond charge dynamics in molecules and more complex systems

The emergence of attosecond light sources (1 as = 10-18 s) has opened up an exciting area of physics giving access to the electron dynamics in matter and allowing the ultrafast electronic and structural processes to be monitored in real-time. This has considerably evolved the understanding of fundamental energy transfer and conversion mechanisms as well as radiation damage effects in (bio)molecules at the atomic scale. However, the very details of the temporal and structural evolution in more realistic systems, such as solvated molecules, remains essentially unexplored with many open questions, such as: • How does solvation change the physical and chemical properties of a molecule? • What is the role of coupled electron and nuclear dynamics in the molecular functionality in water? In this project, these and other related questions are addressed through a bottom-up approach from the actual building blocks to the macromolecules.

P3 - Kinematically complete study of photoreactions in molecules (click here for more information)

Applications of atomic and molecular science are currently evolving toward complex systems such as large- molecules and clusters, which are aggregates of atoms or molecules, where important discoveries are foreseen in the areas of ultrafast energy transfer and energy conversion mechanisms at the atomic scale. During the past decades, charged-particle velocity-vector-imaging spectrometers have revolutionized atomic, molecular, and cluster science, allowing for the realization of kinematically complete experiments of photoreactions. In this project, we develop improved spectrometers for the challenging high-resolution, high-count-rate, multi-particle detection necessary in a foreseeable future. On the one hand, we push the frontiers of the number as well as the mass of detectable particles with 3D detectors in order to observe such very detailed information for ever larger and more complex supermolecular systems. At the same time we extend the applicability of 2D detector through the use of very-high-time-resolution detectors with multi-hit capabilities.

More info can be found here: www.heliosgraduateschool.org