Double core-hole creation by sequential attosecond photoionization

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Jul 26;111(4):043001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.043001. Epub 2013 Jul 23.

Abstract

X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy demonstrates that a single core-hole krypton with a 170-as lifetime can be photoionized again to a double core-hole state by an intense x-ray pulse. The observation indicates that unconventional interaction between intense x rays and atoms is no more negligible in applications with x-ray free-electron lasers. Quantitative analysis of the double core-hole creation including effects of a pulsed and spiky temporal structure enables estimation of the x-ray pulse duration in the sub-10-fs range.