The low density matter end-station at the new seeded free electron laser FERMI@Elettra is a versatile instrument for the study of atoms, molecules and clusters by means of electron and ion spectroscopies. Beams of atoms, molecules and helium droplets as well as clusters of atoms, molecules and metals can be produced by three different pulsed valves. The atomic and molecular beams may be seeded, and the clusters and droplets may be pure, or doped with other atoms and molecules. The electrons and ions produced by the ionization and fragmentation of the samples by the intense light of FERMI can be analysed by the available spectrometers, to give mass spectra and energy as well as angular distributions of charged particles. The design of the detector allows simultaneous detection of electrons and ions using velocity map imaging and time-of-flight techniques respectively. The instruments have a high energy/mass resolution and large solid-angle collection efficiency. We describe the current status of the apparatus and illustrate the potential for future experiments.

The ionization dynamics of He nanodroplets irradiated with intense femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses of up to 10 13 W=cm 2 power density have been investigated by photoelectron spectroscopy. Helium droplets were resonantly excited to atomiclike 2p states with a photon energy of 21.4 eV, below the ionization potential (I p ), and directly into the ionization continuum with 42.8 eV photons. While electron emission following direct ionization above I p is well explained within a model based on a sequence of direct electron emission events, the resonant excitation provides evidence of a new, collective ionization mechanism involving many excited atomiclike 2p states. With increasing power density the direct photoline due to an interatomic Coulombic decay disappears. It indicates that ionization occurs due to energy exchange between at least three excited atoms proceeding on a femtosecond time scale. In agreement with recent theoretical work the novel ionization process is very efficient and it is expected to be important for many other systems. With the advent of short-wavelength free-electron lasers (FELs) the interaction between intense, high-energy light pulses and matter has become a very active field of research [1][2][3] and one of the most exciting topics in atomic and molecular science. Key questions are related to ionization dynamics on an atomic level, answers to which will help to develop an understanding of processes in more complex systems. In pioneering experiments and theoretical studies, various new phenomena such as absorption enhancement [1,4], bleaching [3,5,6], as well as modification [7] and suppression [8] of electron emission were discovered.At high power densities a nanoscale sample, such as a large molecule or cluster, can absorb a large number of photons and the system undergoes a transition to a highly excited, nonequilibrium state. Ionization in this case is strongly interlinked with correlated electron dynamics, either due to multielectron collisions with energy exchange [7] or by novel types of autoionization processes related to interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD), as predicted recently [9]. According to this work, clusters resonantly irradiated by intense light pulses with photon energies insufficient to ionize the atoms by single photon absorption are efficiently autoionized due to the energy exchange between two excited electrons [ Fig. 1(a)]. As a result, an unusual form of a collectively excited, plasmalike state may be formed which is expected to autoionize on a fs-ps time scale [9]. Initial evidence for such an ionization process in Ne clusters has been reported recently [10,11].In this Letter we report a study of electron emission from He clusters irradiated by intense pulses from the new seeded-FEL FERMI [12] at power densities where such collective autoionization (CAI) processes are expected to occur [13]. He droplets were either resonantly excited to the 2p atomiclike state [14], which is well below the ionization potential (I p ), or excited into the continuum. The elect...

Ultrafast extreme ultraviolet and X-ray free-electron lasers are set to revolutionize many domains such as bio-photonics and materials science, in a manner similar to optical lasers over the past two decades. Although their number will grow steadily over the coming decade, their complete characterization remains an elusive goal. This represents a significant barrier to their wider adoption and hence to the full realization of their potential in modern photon sciences. Although a great deal of progress has been made on temporal characterization and wavefront measurements at ultrahigh extreme ultraviolet and X-ray intensities, only few, if any progress on accurately measuring other key parameters such as the state of polarization has emerged. Here we show that by combining ultra-short extreme ultraviolet free electron laser pulses from FERMI with near-infrared laser pulses, we can accurately measure the polarization state of a free electron laser beam in an elegant, non-invasive and straightforward manner using circular dichroism.

Multilayer, monolayer, and submonolayer films of the dipeptide glycyl-glycine on the Cu(110) surface have been studied by a combination of soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. Detailed models of the electronic structure and adsorption geometry at each coverage have been proposed. After adsorption, the molecules bind to the copper surface in two forms, zwitterionic and anionic, and the latter is dominant after annealing. In the monolayer, the anionic form of the dipeptide coordinates to the surface via the oxygen atoms of the carboxylate or peptide group and amino nitrogen atom, whereas in the submonolayer regime, the amino group interacts with the surface through a hydrogen atom.

Free electron lasers (FELs) offer the unprecedented capability to study reaction dynamics and image the structure of complex systems. When multiple photons are absorbed in complex systems, a plasma-like state is formed where many atoms are ionized on a femtosecond timescale. If multiphoton absorption is resonantly-enhanced, the system becomes electronically-excited prior to plasma formation, with subsequent decay paths which have been scarcely investigated to date. Here, we show using helium nanodroplets as an example that these systems can decay by a new type of process, named collective autoionization. In addition, we show that this process is surprisingly efficient, leading to ion abundances much greater than that of direct single-photon ionization. This novel collective ionization process is expected to be important in many other complex systems, e.g. macromolecules and nanoparticles, exposed to high intensity radiation fields.

The Low Density Matter (LDM) beamline has been built as part of the FERMI free-electron laser (FEL) facility to serve the atomic, molecular and cluster physics community. After the commissioning phase, it received the first external users at the end of 2012. The design and characterization of the LDM photon transport system is described, detailing the optical components of the beamline.

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