Abstract
A NEW TECHNIQUE CAN CONtrol beams of high-energy X-rays on an ultrafast timescale. The procedure may enable scientists to study subtle changes in atomic positions and other phenomena in chemical reaction dynamics with very high time resolution. By shining intense laser light on a thin germanium crystal while the crystal is transmitting X-rays, University of Michigan physicists Matthew F. DeCamp, David A. Reis, and Philip H. Bucksbaum and colleagues can control X-ray transmission [ Nature, 413 , 825 (2001)]. In the absence of the laser pulse, an X-ray beam passes through the crystal and emerges as two diffracted beams with roughly equal intensity. But when the laser light irradiates the crystal, the lattice spacings are altered rapidly, allowing the team to switch the X-ray beams on and offon a subpicosecond timescale. A number of other advances in ultrafast methods for probing reaction dynamics using light have been reported in the past several years, but they have all had shortcomings. ...
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