Publications by authors named "R Sobierajski"

Liquid polymorphism is an intriguing phenomenon that has been found in a few single-component systems, the most famous being water. By supercooling liquid Te to more than 130 K below its melting point and performing simultaneous small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements, we observe clear maxima in its thermodynamic response functions around 615 K, suggesting the possible existence of liquid polymorphism. A close look at the underlying structural evolution shows the development of intermediate-range order upon cooling, most strongly around the thermodynamic maxima, which we attribute to bond-orientational ordering.

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Article Synopsis
  • Proper diagnostics of intense free-electron laser (FEL) X-ray pulses is crucial for both data analysis and protecting equipment in modern research facilities.
  • This paper presents the first characterization of a defocused 13.5-nm beam from the free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH) using a technique that analyzes material removal in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) due to multiple laser pulses.
  • The study proposes a new algorithm for accurately reconstructing the beam fluence profile, demonstrating that the experimental results closely align with theoretical models of desorption response functions, applicable at various pulse repetition rates.
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Ruthenium is a perspective material to be used for XUV mirrors at free-electron laser facilities. Yet, it is still poorly studied in the context of ultrafast laser-matter interaction. In this work, we present single-shot damage studies of thin Ru films irradiated by femtosecond XUV free-electron laser pulses at FLASH.

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The durability of grazing- and normal-incidence optical coatings has been experimentally assessed under free-electron laser irradiation at various numbers of pulses up to 16 million shots and various fluence levels below 10% of the single-shot damage threshold. The experiment was performed at FLASH, the Free-electron LASer in Hamburg, using 13.5 nm extreme UV (EUV) radiation with 100 fs pulse duration.

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The role played by heat accumulation in multi-shot damage of silicon was studied. Bulk silicon samples were exposed to intense XUV monochromatic radiation of a 13.5 nm wavelength in a series of 400 femtosecond pulses, repeated with a 1 MHz rate (pulse trains) at the FLASH facility in Hamburg.

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