Advanced Ultrafast X-ray Imaging Group
Prof. Dr. Tais Gorkhover
Combining high spatial and temporal resolutions in X-ray imaging
We develop new X-ray imaging techniques which expand our capabilities to visualize non-equilibrium dynamics with high spatial and temporal resolutions at the single particle level. Most imaging approaches are severely limited when a combination of high spatial high spatial resolution and extreme shutter speed is required. Ultrafast optical approaches have a rather coarse resolution due to the long wavelength. Conversely, electron microscopy can yield atomic resolution but demands a rather long exposure time. Therefore ultrafast processes in free nanometer-sizes particles cannot be directly imaged with conventional methods. However, the ability to follow dynamics in nanostructures in native environment is of utmost importance to research fields ranging from climate modeling science, catalysis, chemistry, nanotechnology and material science.
Our group exploits the amazing power of X-ray Free-Electron-Lasers to break current limitations of state-of-art microscopes. We carry out experiments here in Hamburg (FLASH, EuXFEL) and world-wide (LCLS in USA, SACLA in Japan, PAL XFEL in Korea and SwissFEL in Switzerland).