X-Ray and XUV Imaging of Helium Nanodroplets

Abstract

AbstractX-ray and extreme ultraviolet (XUV) coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) have the advantage of producing high resolution images with current spatial resolution of tens of nanometers and temporal resolution of tens of femtoseconds. Modern developments in the production of coherent, ultra-bright, and ultra-short X-ray and XUV pulses have even enabled lensless, single-shot imaging of individual, transient, non-periodic objects. The data collected in this technique are diffraction images, which are intensity distributions of the scattered photons from the object. Superfluid helium droplets are ideal systems to study with CDI, since each droplet is unique on its own. It is also not immediately apparent what shapes the droplets would take or what structures are formed by dopant particles inside the droplet. In this chapter, we review the current state of research on helium droplets using CDI, particularly, the study of droplet shape deformation, the in-situ configurations of dopant nanostructures, and their dynamics after being excited by an intense laser pulse. Since CDI is a rather new technique for helium nanodroplet research, we also give a short introduction on this method and on the different light sources available for X-ray and XUV experiments.