ULMI · Ultrafast All-Electron Microscopy

Atoms and electrons are the central building blocks of almost all materials around us. Whenever there is a process or change, the atoms and the electrons have to move from initial to final configurations. These movements are very fast and very small: nanometers to picometers in space and femtoseconds to attoseconds in time. Ultrafast electron microscopy can provide a movie-like access, but we can only see processes that are excited by special laser light, although many reaction phenomena in nature proceed with a much less specific stimulus. This project has two major aims. (a) We will use sequences of ultrashort electron pulses to develop novel ways to understand ultrasmall and ultrafast material dynamics with nanometer/atomic control. (b) We will advance ultrafast spectroscopy and imaging towards a statistical investigation of reaction dynamics as they occur in unspecific ways. We will become capable of understanding reaction dynamics on atomic scales and obtain first-ever insight into femtosecond processes in so far unobservable regimes. Based on these new capabilities, we will investigate a broad range of questions in materials science, nanophotonics, electronic circuitry, magnetism, chemistry and atomic physics, in order to better understand and optimize the functionality of advanced materials for technology and life.