TPES - Workshop on time-resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy

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(ph. FotoRolli)

The study of non-equilibrium phenomena in condensed matter physics is encountering a rapidly-growing interest in the scientific community. Thanks to the advent of modern ultrafast laser sources, new advanced optical setups have been developed, to the aim of seeding time-resolved photon and photoelectron spectroscopies. These developments pushed the research and contributed to unveil novel phenomena taking place on ultrashort timescales. Nowadays, it is possible to study and eventually to control the condensed matter out-of-equilibrium, as well as to investigate the intriguing properties of complex and ordered ground states of solids.

The T-ReX Laboratory of Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, developed in the frame of the FERMI FEL, is an "unicum" in Italy and one of the first worldwide facilities devoted to ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopic investigations. The Laboratory joins frontier studies on the physics of novel materials with the development of light sources with unique features, and complements the spectroscopies available at the FERMI FEL in Trieste. In particular, the Laboratory offers to users an advanced end-station for time and angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (TR-ARPES), optical spectroscopy and spin-scattering experiments in the sub-ps time domain.

Elettra, in collaboration with IOM-CNR which is contributing to the project of a facility for time-resolved spectroscopies, organized the TPES workshop, devoted to the field of time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Aim of the workshop was to discuss the most recent and advanced topics in the solid-state community, relevant to time-and-angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) and related innovative developments in the field of extreme UV ultrafast photon sources.
Outstanding speakers from Europe (France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, UK), from the USA and from Japan presented the most advanced outcomes of their research in the field of TR-ARPES. The workshop was organized in five sections, in which the orators discussed about the out-of-equilibrium physics of high-temperature superconductors, topological insulators, graphene, layered transition metal dichalcogenides, perovskites and magnetic materials. Presentations with experimental results were intermixed with contributions devoted to the major theoretical advancements in the field of time-resolved photoemission. The workshop ended with a round table organized to discuss about the major topics in the field of ultrafast spectroscopies, as well about possible implementations of the Laboratory in order to meet the most advanced scientific issues, as well as to answer to questions of the future users community. The TPES workshop followed the successful workshop on ‘Integrating table-top laser, seeded-free electron laser and storage ring sources for time resolved spectroscopies’ that was held in Trieste in December 2014, and aims to become a periodic event to discuss about the science and developments in the field of time-resolved ultrafast spectroscopies.

The outstanding quality of the speakers and of the scientific program of the TPES workshop, along with the high number of attendees (more than 80 from several countries) contributed to the success of the event. A key result of the workshop was to motivate and instruct prospective users about the unique features of T-ReX as a facility. Finally, the discussion stimulated by the scientific sessions paved the way to a number of future collaborations and new scientific opportunities.

Federico Cilento