Fundamental aspects of ultrafast dynamics in complex molecular ions excited by an ultrashort XUV pulse: experiment and theory – FAUST

FAUST investigates new mechanisms encountered in molecular ions following an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) excitation. XUV ultrafast molecular science addresses the question of how electron correlation and non-born Oppenheimer processes determine photoinduced dynamics on atomic scale. While first studies have investigated polyatomic neutral molecules, a major challenge is their extension to molecular ions that constitute by far the major species involved in nature. In FAUST we tackle this question by combining state-of-the-art ultrafast XUV technology, molecular ion manipulation and multielectronic/non-adiabatic theories. We will investigate how the combination of the added charges and correlation effects define the dynamics. Based on a strong synergy between experiment and theory, our ambition is to show that ultrafast XUV ionization stimulates new processes involving hole and energy transport across molecular structures, from small simple organic ... to large molecular structures.