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At least 91 records · Page 5

Role of electron-electron interference in ultrafast time-resolved imaging of electronic wavepackets

Ultrafast time-resolved x-ray scattering is an emerging approach to image the dynamical evolution of the electronic charge distribution during complex chemical and biological processes in real-space and real-time. Recently, the differences between semiclassical and quantum-electrodynamical (QED) theory of light-matter interaction for scattering of ultrashort x-ray pulses from the electronic wavepacket were formally demonstrated and visually illustrated by scattering patterns calculated for an electronic wavepacket in atomic hydrogen [G. Dixit, O. Vendrell, and R. Santra, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 109, 11636 (2012)]. In this work, we present a detailed analysis of time-resolved x-ray scattering from a sample containing a mixture of non-stationary and stationary electrons within both the theories. In a many-electron system, the role of scattering interference between a non-stationary and several stationary electrons to the total scattering signal is investigated. In general, QED and semiclassical theory provide different results for the contribution from the scattering interference, which depends on the energy resolution of the detector and the x-ray pulse duration. The present findings are demonstrated by means of a numerical example of x-ray time-resolved imaging for an electronic wavepacket in helium. It is shown that the time-dependent scattering interference vanishes within semiclassical theory and the corresponding patterns are dominated by the scattering contribution from the time-independent interference, whereas the time-dependent scattering interference contribution do not vanish in the QED theory and the patterns are dominated by the scattering contribution from the non-stationary electron scattering.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Electron-stimulated reactions in nanoscale water films adsorbed on (alpha)-Al2O3(0001)

The radiation-induced decomposition and desorption of nanoscale amorphous solid water (D2O) films adsorbed on -Al2O3(0001) surface was studied at low temperature in ultrahigh vacuum using temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and electron stimulated desorption (ESD) with a mono-energetic, low energy electron source. ESD yields of molecular products ( D2, O2 and D¬2O) and the total sputtering yield increased with increasing D2O coverage up to ~15 water monolayers (i.e. ~15 1015 cm-2) to a coverage-independent level for thicker water films. Experiments with isotopically-layered water films (D2O and H2O) demonstrated that the highest water decomposition yields occurred at the interfaces of the nanoscale water films with the alumina substrate and vacuum. However, the increased reactivity of the water/alumina interface is relatively small compared to the enhancements in the non-thermal reactions previously observed at the water/Pt(111) and water/TiO2(110) interfaces. We propose that the relatively low activity of Al2O3(0001) for the radiation-induced production of molecular hydrogen is associated with lower reactivity of this surface with hydrogen atoms, which are likely precursors for the molecular hydrogen.

Petrik, Nikolay G.↗

Time-resolved measurements of the hot-electron population in ignition-scale experiments on the National Ignition Facility (invited)

In laser-driven inertial confinement fusion, hot electrons can preheat the fuel and prevent fusion-pellet compression to ignition conditions. Measuring the hot-electron population is key to designing an optimized ignition platform. The hot electrons in these high-intensity, laser-driven experiments, created via laser-plasma interactions, can be inferred from the bremsstrahlung generated by hot electrons interacting with the target. At the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [G. H. Miller, E. I. Moses, and C. R. Wuest, Opt. Eng. 43, 2841 (2004)], the filter-fluorescer x-ray (FFLEX) diagnostic–a multichannel, hard x-ray spectrometer operating in the 20–500 keV range–has been upgraded to provide fully time-resolved, absolute measurements of the bremsstrahlung spectrum with ∼300 ps resolution. Initial time-resolved data exhibited significant background and low signal-to-noise ratio, leading to a redesign of the FFLEX housing and enhanced shielding around the detector. The FFLEX x-ray sensitivity was characterized with an absolutely calibrated, energy-dispersive high-purity germanium detector using the high-energy x-ray source at NSTec Livermore Operations over a range of K-shell fluorescence energies up to 111 keV (U K{sub β}). The detectors impulse response function was measured in situ on NIF short-pulse (∼90 ps) experiments, and in off-line tests.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Coupling First Principles Calculations of Electron-Electron and Electron-Phonon Scattering, and Applications to Carbon-based Nanostructures

Here, we report first-principles calculations of electronic gaps, lifetimes, and photoelectron spectra of a series of molecules, performed by efficiently combining the computation of electron-electron and electron-phonon self-energies. The dielectric matrix is represented in terms of dielectric eigenpotentials, utilized for both the calculation of G 0 W 0 quasi-particle energies and the diagonalization of the dynamical matrix; virtual electronic states are never explicitly computed and all self-energies are evaluated over the full frequency spectrum. Our formulation enables electronic structure calculations at the many-body perturbation theory level, inclusive of electron-phonon coupling, for systems with hundreds of electrons.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Effect of electron–electron interactions on the emission characteristics of ultracold, nanoscale photoemission-based electron sources

For nearly 60 years, cold field emitters have been the source of choice for electron microscopy due to their high brightness and relatively low energy spread. In this paper, we have examined an alternative: nanoscale electron sources based on near-threshold photoemission. While these sources have not yet been realized, they hold the potential to produce significantly brighter beams than cold field emitters. We model electron–electron Coulomb interactions in beams emitted from such sources to calculate the impact of these interactions on the brightness and the energy spread. Our results show that these sources can theoretically deliver more than an order of magnitude brighter electron beams compared to cold field emitters along with more than an order of magnitude smaller energy spread, before being limited by the Coulomb interactions. Electron sources with such high brightness and low energy spread would be transformational for electron microscopy, enabling electron energy loss-based vibrational spectroscopy at the sub-nanometer scale.

Gevorkyan, G S↗

Extended Gutzwiller Approximation for Nonlocal Electron-Electron and Electron-Boson Correlations (I): The Theory

Understanding electron-electron and electron-photon correlations is central to uncovering the fundamental mechanisms governing material properties, particularly in systems where strong interactions give rise to emergent phenomena such as superconductivity, magnetism, and polaritonic effects. These correlations play a pivotal role in cavity quantum materials, where hybridized light-matter states enable quantum control over electronic properties. However, capturing both local and nonlocal correlations in these systems presents a significant theoretical challenge. In this work, we extend the Gutzwiller wavefunction method to include nonlocal electron-photon and electron-electron interactions, providing a unified framework to study the intricate interplay between these effects. Our approach accurately captures the long-range correlations induced by photon exchange, enabling the exploration of exotic quantum phases and the effects of cavity coupling on electronic structure. By benchmarking the method across coupling regimes, we reveal the critical role of nonlocal correlations in stabilizing phases, such as superconducting and insulating states, that are inaccessible through local interactions alone. This generalized Gutzwiller framework offers a versatile tool for understanding and designing materials that harness the transformative potential of strong light-matter coupling.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

The effect of electron-electron interaction induced dephasing on electronic transport in graphene nanoribbons

The effect of dephasing induced by electron-electron interaction on electronic transport in graphene nanoribbons is theoretically investigated. In the presence of disorder in graphene nanoribbons, wavefunction of electrons can set up standing waves along the channel and the conductance exponentially decreases with the ribbon's length. Employing the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism along with an accurate model for describing the dephasing induced by electron-electron interaction, we show that this kind of interaction prevents localization and transport of electrons remains in the diffusive regime where the conductance is inversely proportional to the ribbon's length.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Layer-dependent electronic structure of an atomically heavy two-dimensional dichalcogenide

Here we report angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopic measurements of the evolution of the thickness-dependent electronic band structure of the atomically heavy two-dimensional layered dichalcogenide, tungsten diselenide ( WS e 2 ) . Our data, taken on mechanically exfoliated WS e 2 single crystals, provide direct evidence for shifting of the valence-band maximum from Γ ¯ (multilayer WS e 2 ) to K ¯ (single-layer WS e 2 ). Further, our measurements also set a lower bound on the energy of the direct band gap and provide direct measurement of the hole effective mass.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Kinetic and electron-electron energies for convex sums of ground state densities with degeneracies and fractional electron number

Properties of exact density functionals provide useful constraints for the development of new approximate functionals. This paper focuses on convex sums of ground-level densities. It is observed that the electronic kinetic energy of a convex sum of degenerate ground-level densities is equal to the convex sum of the kinetic energies of the individual degenerate densities. (The same type of relationship holds also for the electron-electron repulsion energy.) This extends a known property of the Levy-Valone Ensemble Constrained-Search and the Lieb Legendre-Transform refomulations of the Hohenberg-Kohn functional to the individual components of the functional. Moreover, we observe that the kinetic and electron-repulsion results also apply to densities with fractional electron number (even if there are no degeneracies), and we close with an analogous point-wise property involving the external potential. Examples where different degenerate states have different kinetic energy and electron-nuclear attraction energy are given; consequently, individual components of the ground state electronic energy can change abruptly when the molecular geometry changes. These discontinuities are predicted to be ubiquitous at conical intersections, complicating the development of universally applicable density-functional approximations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Electron-beam energy reconstruction for neutrino oscillation measurements

Neutrinos exist in one of three types or ‘flavours’—electron, muon and tau neutrinos—and oscillate from one flavour to another when propagating through space. This phenomena is one of the few that cannot be described using the standard model of particle physics (reviewed in ref. 1), and so its experimental study can provide new insight into the nature of our Universe (reviewed in ref. 2). Neutrinos oscillate as a function of their propagation distance (L) divided by their energy (E). Therefore, experiments extract oscillation parameters by measuring their energy distribution at different locations. As accelerator-based oscillation experiments cannot directly measure E, the interpretation of these experiments relies heavily on phenomenological models of neutrino–nucleus interactions to infer E. Here we exploit the similarity of electron–nucleus and neutrino–nucleus interactions, and use electron scattering data with known beam energies to test energy reconstruction methods and interaction models. We find that even in simple interactions where no pions are detected, only a small fraction of events reconstruct to the correct incident energy. More importantly, widely used interaction models reproduce the reconstructed energy distribution only qualitatively and the quality of the reproduction varies strongly with beam energy. This shows both the need and the pathway to improve current models to meet the requirements of next-generation, high-precision experiments such as Hyper-Kamiokande (Japan) and DUNE (USA).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Electronic spectra from TDDFT and machine learning in chemical space

Due to its favorable computational efficiency, time-dependent (TD) density functional theory (DFT) enables the prediction of electronic spectra in a high-throughput manner across chemical space. Its predictions, however, can be quite inaccurate. We resolve this issue with machine learning models trained on deviations of reference second-order approximate coupled-cluster (CC2) singles and doubles spectra from TDDFT counterparts, or even from DFT gap. We applied this approach to low-lying singlet-singlet vertical electronic spectra of over 20 000 synthetically feasible small organic molecules with up to eight CONF atoms. The prediction errors decay monotonously as a function of training set size. For a training set of 10 000 molecules, CC2 excitation energies can be reproduced to within ±0.1 eV for the remaining molecules. Analysis of our spectral database via chromophore counting suggests that even higher accuracies can be achieved. Based on the evidence collected, we discuss open challenges associated with data-driven modeling of high-lying spectra and transition intensities.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Nematic antiferromagnetism and deconfined criticality from the interplay between electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions

Systems with strong electron-phonon couplings typically exhibit various forms of charge order, while strong electron-electron interactions lead to magnetism. In this work, we use determinant quantum Monte Carlo calculations to solve a model on a square lattice with a caricature of these interactions. In the limit where electron-electron interactions dominate it has antiferromagnetic order, while where electron-phonon coupling dominates there is columnar valence-bond-solid (VBS) order. We find an intervening phase that hosts coexisting nematic and antiferromagnetic orders. We have also found evidence of a Landau-forbidden continuous quantum phase transition with an emergent O(4) symmetry between the VBS and the nematic antiferromagnetic phases.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗