Jun 25 – 27, 2018
Stockholm, Alba Nova
Europe/Stockholm timezone

Ultrafast non-thermal heating of water initiated by an X-ray Free-Electron Laser

Jun 25, 2018, 5:00 PM
2h
Board: 32
Contributed poster Poster session

Speaker

Dr Olof Jönsson (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University; Biomedical and X-ray Physics, KTH)

Description

The bright ultrafast pulses of X-ray Free-Electron Lasers allow investigation into the structure of matter under extreme conditions. We have used single pulses to ionize and probe water as it undergoes a phase transition from liquid to plasma. We report changes in the structure of liquid water on a femtosecond timescale when irradiated by single 6.86 keV X-ray pulses of more than 10$^{6}$ J/cm$^2$. These observations are supported by simulations based on molecular dynamics and plasma dynamics of a water system that is rapidly ionized and gets out of equilibrium. This exotic ionic and disordered state at liquid density is suggested to be structurally different from a neutral thermally disordered state.

Primary authors

Dr Olof Jönsson (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University; Biomedical and X-ray Physics, KTH) Dr Kenneth R. Beyerlein (Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) Dr Carl Caleman (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University; Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) Dr Nicusor Timneanu (Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University)

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.