Abstract

We present the scientific case of an experiment in which the electronic structure of rare-gas clusters is probed with time- and spectrally resolved fluorescence methods. The first successful measurements with synchrotron radiation and with electron-beam excitation are encouraging but also reveal severe limitations. It is shown that a vacuum-ultraviolet free-electron laser source will lead to a breakthrough including both conventional and more sophisticated interrogation methods for conventional and perhaps even for mass-selected cluster beams.

© 1989 Optical Society of America

Material applications of the far-infrared free-electron laser

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