Fragmentation dynamics of fullerenes upon extreme electronic excitation near the giant resonance with XUV free-electron laser pulses

POSTER

Abstract

Fullerenes serve as an ideal model system to investigate the complex dynamics in large molecules, which often exhibit a complex interplay of single- and many-body phenomena. The strong coupling between dense electronic states and phonon modes in fullerenes leads to complex energy absorption and dissipation pathways. We explore these processes by leveraging the collective resonance of C60 to deposit a large amount of energy through intense XUV radiation from the FLASH free-electron laser over ultrashort timescales. Using a single-color pump-probe scheme, we measured the kinetic-energy spectra of both light and heavy ionic fragments as a function of the pump-probe delay. Our theoretical modeling revealed the formation of a transient nanoplasma, which explains the distinctive delay dependence of the doubly-charged carbon yield. Furthermore, this model is consistent with the Wigner threshold behavior observed in the kinetic-energy distributions of monomer and dimer ions.

*This work is funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, US Department of Energy, grant No DE-SC0012376. We acknowledge DESY (Hamburg, Germany), a member of the Helmholtz Association HGF, for the provision of experimental facilities. Parts of this research were carried out at FLASH using the reaction microscope at FL26.

Publication: A. C. LaForge*, D. Mishra*, U. Saalmann, R. Obaid, S. Pathak, H. Lindenblatt, S. Meister, F. Trost, P. Rosenberger, R. Michiels, S. Biswas, K. Saraswathula, F. Stienkemeier, F. Calegari, M. Braune, M. Mudrich, M. F. Kling, D. Rolles, E. Kukk, T. Pfeifer, J. M. Rost, R. Moshammer, N. Berrah, "Fragmentation dynamics of fullerenes upon extreme electronic excitation near the giant resonance with XUV free-electron laser pulses", Submitted to PRL (2024)

Presenters

  • Debadarshini Mishra

    • University of Connecticut

Authors

  • Debadarshini Mishra

    • University of Connecticut

  • Aaron C LaForge

    • University of Connecticut

  • Ulf Saalmann

    • Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems

  • Razib Obaid

    • SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Shashank Pathak

    • Kansas State University

  • Hannes Lindenblatt

    • Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics

  • Severin Meister

    • Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics

  • Florian Trost

    • Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics

  • Philipp Rosenberger

    • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

  • Rupert Michiels

    • University of Freiburg

  • Shubhadeep Biswas

    • SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Krishna Saraswathula

    • Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY

  • Frank Stienkemeier

    • University of Freiburg

  • Francesca Calegari

    • Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY

  • Markus Braune

    • DESY

  • Marcel Mudrich

    • Aarhus University

  • Matthias F Kling

    • Stanford University

  • Daniel Rolles

    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University
    • Kansas State University
    • J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA

  • Edwin Kukk

    • University of Turku

  • Thomas Pfeifer

    • Max-Planck-Inst Kernphys
    • Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK) Heidelberg, Germany

  • Jan Michael Rost

    • Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
    • Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex System, Dresden, Germany
    • Director of the division Finite Systems, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems

  • Robert Moshammer

    • Max-Planck-Inst Kernphys
    • Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics

  • Nora Berrah

    • University of Connecticut
    • Uinversity of Connecticut