These questions can be approached for the first time. The details of this explosion reveal fundamental principles of the interaction of intense X-ray radiation with matter. As a consequence the cluster "explodes", because of the repulsion of the ions". Partly, even multiply positively charged atoms develop. "When excited by the intense X-ray flashes, the nobel gas atoms emit more and more electrons thus forming a plasma. Wiik Prize 2002 was recently awarded to Dr. Thomas Möller, who leads the cluster experiment. "What happens can be compared to a microscopic fireworks display" describes DESY physicist Dr. In a first experiment, clusters of the noble gas Xenon were irradiated with the intense laser light. Therefore, chemical reactions can be observed directly. Moreover, an X-ray flash of the FEL lasts for only a 100 quadrillionths of a second - this is the time scale where chemical bonds form and atoms change their position. The peak brilliance of this new laser is a thousand times higher than those of the best current light sources in this wavelength range. These are the shortest wavelengths ever generated by an FEL. The free-electron laser at DESY generates very intense laser light at wavelengths below a 100 millionths of a millimeter, a range called soft X-ray radiation. Schneider, research director and head of the Hamburg Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory HASYLAB at DESY. "We use noble gas clusters as relatively simple model systems to understand fundamental processes which will be important for future investigations of technologically interesting materials or medically important biomolecules " explains Prof. Using small clusters of noble gas atoms, for the first time, researchers studied the interaction of matter with intense X-ray radiation from an FEL on extremely short time scales.
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