Attosecond spectroscopy has opened up the possibility of observing electron dynamics in matter at their natural timescale, ranging from few-femtoseconds to tens of attoseconds. This has notably provided a route to investigate in large molecules the phenomenon of electron-driven charge migration for which, following photoexcitation, the charge density travels rapidly along the molecular structure. I will report our most recent works devoted to the investigation of charge migration and its applications to manipulate the outcome of photochemical and photophysical processes via charge-directed reactivity. With a particular interest in addressing the challenges for studying electron dynamics in neutral molecules, an overview of our few-femtosecond UV light sources will also be given.
Center for Free-Electron Laser Science CFEL