Studying catalysts in situ is of high interest for understanding their surface structure and electronic states in operation. Herein, we present a study of epitaxial manganite perovskite thin films (Pr 1−x Ca x MnO 3 ) active for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) from electro-catalytic water splitting. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) at the Mn L-and O K-edges, as well as X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) of the O 1s and Ca 2p states have been performed in ultra-high vacuum and in water vapor under positive applied bias at room temperature. It is shown that under the oxidizing conditions of the OER a reduced Mn 2+ species is generated at the catalyst surface. The Mn valence shift is accompanied by the formation of surface oxygen vacancies. Annealing of the catalysts in O 2 atmosphere at 120 °C restores the virgin surfaces.

The development of ultra-intense and ultra-short light sources is currently a subject of intense research driven by the discovery of novel phenomena in the realm of relativistic optics, such as the production of ultrafast energetic particle and radiation beams for applications. It has been a long-standing challenge to unite two hitherto distinct classes of light sources: those achieving relativistic intensity and those with pulse durations approaching a single light cycle. While the former class traditionally involves large-scale amplification chains, the latter class places high demand on the spatiotemporal control of the electromagnetic laser field. Here, we present a light source producing waveformcontrolled 1.5-cycle pulses with a 719 nm central wavelength that can be focused to relativistic intensity at a 1 kHz repetition rate based on nonlinear post-compression in a long hollow-core fiber. The unique capabilities of this source allow us to observe the first experimental indications of light waveform effects in laser wakefield acceleration of relativistic energy electrons.

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