Dynamics of He Nanodroplets

Catherine Saladrigas

Dynamics in Helium Nanodroplets

Exploring the boundaries, commonalities, and distinct differences between the worlds of classical physics and quantum mechanics has led to some of the most fascinating revelations of modern science. In this activity, we explore the transition regions between the atomic and the macroscopic world and between classical and quantum physics. We use superfluid and normal fluid helium nanodroplets as unique testbeds for our understanding of the collective behavior of up to tens of billions of atoms, covering many orders of magnitude of individual atom and collective excitation. Employing ultrafast photoelectron and ion imaging spectroscopy with tabletop XUV light sources, as well as ultrafast coherent diffractive imaging and spectroscopy with X-ray Free Electron Lasers, such as LCLS and European XFEL, we gain a deeper understanding of dynamics in ground state, excited state, and highly ionized atomic clusters. We investigate phenomena ranging from the emergence of quantum vortices in rotating superfluid droplets, to the formation and relaxation of light induced nanoplasmas.

Dynamics of Helium Nanodroplets – Selected Publications

see here for a complete list of publications

  1. C. Bacellar, A. S. Chatterley, F. Lackner, C. D. Pemmaraju, R. M. P. Tanyag, D. Verma, C. Bernando, S. O’Connell, M. Bucher, K. R. Ferguson, T. Gorkhover, R. Coffee, G. Coslovich, D. Ray, T. Osipov, D. M. Neumark, C. Bostedt, A. F. Vilesov, and O. Gessner, “Anisotropic surface broadening and core depletion during the evolution of a strong-field induced nanoplasma”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 073201 (2022), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.073201.

  2. Alexandra J. Feinberg, Felix Laimer, Rico Mayro Tanyag, Björn Senfftleben, Yevheniy Ovcharenko, Simon Dold, Michael Gatchell, Sean M.O. O’Connell, Swetha Erukala, Catherine A. Saladrigas, Benjamin W. Toulson, Andreas Hoffman, Ben Kamerin, Rebecca Boll, Alberto DeFanis, Patrik Grychtol, Tommaso Mazza, Jacobo Montano, Kiana Setoodehnia, David Lomidze, Robert Hartmann, Philipp Schmidt, Anatoli Ulmer, Alessandro Colombo, Michael Meyer, Thomas Moeller, Daniela Rupp, Oliver Gessner, Paul Scheier, Andrey F Vilesov, “X-Ray Diffractive Imaging of Highly Ionized Helium Nanodroplets”, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, L022063 (2022), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L022063.

  3. Alexandra J. Feinberg, Deepak Verma, Sean M.O. O’Connell, Swetha Erukala, Rico M.P. Tanyag, Weiwu Pang, Catherine A. Saladrigas, Benjamin W. Toulson, Mario Borgwardt, Niranjan Shivaram, Ming-Fu Lin, Andre Al Haddad, Wolfgang Jäger, Christoph Bostedt, Peter Walter, Oliver Gessner and Andrey F. Vilesov, “Aggregation of solutes in bosonic versus fermionic quantum fluids”, Sci. Adv. 7, eabk2247 (2021), DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abk2247.

  4. Catherine A. Saladrigas, Alexandra J. Feinberg, Michael P. Ziemkiewicz, Camila Bacellar, Maximilian Bucher, Charles Bernando, Sebastian Carron, Adam S. Chatterley, Franz-Josef Decker, Ken R. Ferguson, Luis Gomez, Taisia Gorkhover, Nathan A. Helvy, Curtis F. Jones, Justin J. Kwok, Alberto Lutman, Daniela Rupp, Rico Mayro P. Tanyag, Thomas Möller, Daniel M. Neumark, Christoph Bostedt, Andrey F. Vilesov, and Oliver Gessner, “Charging and Ion Ejection Dynamics of Large Helium Nanodroplets Exposed to Intense Femtosecond Soft X-Ray Pulses”, Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 230, 4011 (2021), DOI: 10.1140/epjs/s11734- 021-00280-0.

  5. Sean M. O. O’Connell, Rico Mayro P. Tanyag, Deepak Verma, Charles Bernando, Weiwu Pang, Camila Bacellar, Catherine A. Saladrigas, Johannes Mahl, Benjamin W. Toulson, Yoshiaki Kumagai, Peter Walter, Francesco Ancilotto, Manuel Barranco, Marti Pi, Christoph Bostedt, Oliver Gessner and Andrey F. Vilesov, “Angular momentum in rotating superfluid droplets”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 215301 (2020), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.215301.

  6. O. Gessner and A. Vilesov, “Imaging Quantum Vortices in Superfluid Helium Droplets”, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem., 70, 173 (2019), DOI: 10.1146/annurev-physchem-042018-052744.

  7. Luis F. Gomez, Ken R. Ferguson, James P. Cryan, Camila Bacellar, Rico Mayro P. Tanyag, Curtis Jones, Sebastian Schorb, Denis Anielski, Ali Belkacem, Charles Bernando, Rebecca Boll, John Bozek, Sebastian Carron, Gang Chen, Tjark Delmas, Lars Englert, Sascha W. Epp, Benjamin Erk, Lutz Foucar, Robert Hartmann, Alexander Hexemer, Martin Huth, Justin Kwok, Stephen R. Leone, Jonathan H.S. Ma, Filipe R. N. C. Maia, Erik Malmerberg, Stefano Marchesini, Daniel M. Neumark, Billy Poon, James Prell, Daniel Rolles, Benedikt Rudek, Artem Rudenko, Martin Seifrid, Katrin R. Siefermann, Felix P. Sturm, Michele Swiggers, Joachim Ullrich, Fabian Weise, Petrus Zwart, Christoph Bostedt, Oliver Gessner, Andrey F. Vilesov, “Shapes and Vorticities of Superfluid Helium Nanodroplets”, Science 345, 906 (2014), DOI: 10.1126/science.1252395.