My research is focused on advancing a fundamental understanding of non-equilibrium dynamics in highly excited matter on the nanoscale. The excitation of nanoparticles, such as clusters and nanodroplets in strong laser fields, provides a well-defined scenario to explore and possibly control the correlated dynamics of excitation and plasma formation. The light-induced dynamics are probed via (time-resolved) coherent diffractive imaging, using intense short-wavelength pulses from free-electron lasers (FELs) and high-harmonic generation (HHG) sources, and the concurrent spectroscopic measurement of ions and electrons. In this context I develop and advance innovative detection schemes, beam focusing, manipulation and characterization tools as well as sample delivery systems.

Topics:
Coherent diffractive imaging in the XUV regime: 3D geometry of single nanoparticles
Coincident diffractive imaging and ion spectroscopy of individual gas-phase clusters
Towards diffractive imaging of electron dynamics with (attosecond) HHG pulses
X-ray Movie Camera at FLASH: Filming light induced dynamics in single clusters
Resonant diffractive imaging of excitation and nanoplasma dynamics at FELs