Daniel Rolles

Experimental Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics; Ultrafast X-Ray Science

Taking a movie of a chemical reaction with atomic resolution? Watching the making and breaking of chemical bonds in real time? Using experimental techniques such as femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and diffraction, time-resolved ion momentum imaging, and electron-ion coincidence spectroscopy, my research focuses on visualizing nuclear and electronic dynamics during photoionization and other photochemical reactions in gas-phase molecules by means of femtosecond pump-probe experiments. Our experiments combine lab-based studies using intense few-cycle optical lasers and their high-order harmonics in the XUV domain with intense and short-pulse VUV and X-ray radiation from Free-Electron Lasers, e.g. the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at Stanford, FLASH and the European XFEL in Hamburg, Germany, FERMI in Trieste, Italy, and SACLA in Japan.