The hadronic width of the ground state of pionic hydrogen has been redetermined by X-ray spectroscopy to be $$\varGamma ^{\pi \mathrm {H}}_{1s}=(856\,\pm \,16_\mathrm{stat}\,\pm \,22_\mathrm{sys})$$  meV. The experiment was performed at the high-intensity low-energy pion beam of the Paul Scherrer Institute by using the cyclotron trap and a high-resolution Bragg spectrometer with spherically bent crystals. Coulomb de-excitation was studied in detail by comparing its influence on the line shape by measuring the three different transitions K $$\alpha $$ , K $$\beta $$ , and K $$\gamma $$ at various hydrogen densities. The pion-nucleon scattering lengths and other physical quantities extracted from pionic-atom data are in good agreement with the results obtained from pion-nucleon and nucleon-nucleon scattering experiments and confirm that a consistent picture is achieved for the low-energy pion-nucleon sector with respect to the expectations of chiral perturbation theory.

Pion-nucleon scattering lengths are directly related to the ground-state level shift and broadening in pionic hydrogen as well as to the pionic deuterium level shift. The level broadening in deuterium measures the strength of pion threshold-production in proton-proton reactions. However, collisional processes during the atomic de-excitation cascade considerably complicate the analysis of X-ray line shapes in order to extract the hadronic broadening. Therefore, additionally the purely electromagnetic twin system muonic hydrogen was studied. Results of these experiments performed at PSI by using a high-resolution crystal spectrometer are discussed in the context with a new analysis approach for the hadronic broadening.

The (3p - 1s) Xray transition to the muonic hydrogen ground state was measured with a high� resolution crystal spectrometer. The assumption of a statistical population of the hyperfine levels of the muonic hydrogen ground state was directly confirmed by the experiment and measured values for the hyper� fine splitting can be reported. The measurement supplements studies on line broadening effects induced by Coulomb deexcitation hindering the direct extraction of the pionnucleon scattering lengths from pionic hydrogen and deuterium Xray lines.

The (3p - 1s) X-ray transition to the muonic hydrogen ground state was measured with a highresolution crystal spectrometer. The assumption of a statistical population of the hyperfine levels of the muonic hydrogen ground state was directly confirmed by the experiment and measured values for the hyperfine splitting can be reported. The measurement supplements studies on line broadening effects induced by Coulomb de-excitation hindering the direct extraction of the pion-nucleon scattering lengths from pionic hydrogen and deuterium X-ray lines.

The (3 p — 1 s ) X-ray transition to the muonic hydrogen ground state was measured with a highresolution crystal spectrometer. The assumption of a statistical population of the hyperfine levels of the muonic hydrogen ground state was directly confirmed by the experiment and measured values for the hyperfine splitting can be reported. The measurement supplements studies on line broadening effects induced by Coulomb de-excitation hindering the direct extraction of the pion-nucleon scattering lengths from pionic hydrogen and deuterium X-ray lines.

The dynamics of thin magnetic films revealed by ultrafast laser techniques cannot be explained by standard equilibrium descriptions. Diffraction experiments using an X-ray laser now allow the spin dynamics of the separate magnetic constituents of ferromagnetic GdFeCo alloys to be spatially resolved. Ultrafast laser techniques have revealed extraordinary spin dynamics in magnetic materials1,2,3,4,5,6 that equilibrium descriptions of magnetism7 cannot explain. Particularly important for future applications is understanding non-equilibrium spin dynamics following laser excitation on the nanoscale, yet the limited spatial resolution of optical laser techniques has impeded such nanoscale studies. Here we present ultrafast diffraction experiments with an X-ray laser that probes the nanoscale spin dynamics following optical laser excitation in the ferrimagnetic alloy GdFeCo, which exhibits macroscopic all-optical switching4,8,9. Our study reveals that GdFeCo displays nanoscale chemical and magnetic inhomogeneities that affect the spin dynamics. In particular, we observe Gd spin reversal in Gd-rich nanoregions within the first picosecond driven by the non-local transfer of angular momentum from larger adjacent Fe-rich nanoregions. These results suggest that a magnetic material’s microstructure can be engineered to control transient laser-excited spins, potentially allowing faster (~ 1 ps) spin reversal than in present technologies10,11,12.

The plasma dynamics of single mesoscopic Xe particles irradiated with intense femtosecond x-ray pulses exceeding 10(16)  W/cm2 from the Linac Coherent Light Source free-electron laser are investigated. Simultaneous recording of diffraction patterns and ion spectra allows eliminating the influence of the laser focal volume intensity and particle size distribution. The data show that for clusters illuminated with intense x-ray pulses, highly charged ionization fragments in a narrow distribution are created and that the nanoplasma recombination is efficiently suppressed.

The ground-state level shifts and broadenings of the hydrogen isotopes caused by the strong interaction have been redetermined by using a high-resolution crystal spectrometer. An additional measurement of muonic hydrogen reveals properties of the de-excitation cascade of such electrically neutral exotic atoms, in particular Coulomb de-excitation, the understanding of which is essential for the analysis of the hadronic-atom data.

The strong-interaction shift ε 1s πD and broadening Γ 1s πD in pionic deuterium have been determined in a high statistics study of the πD(3p-1s) X-ray transition using a high-resolution crystal spectrometer. The pionic deuterium shift will provide constraints for the pion-nucleon isospin scattering lengths extracted from measurements of shift and broadening in pionic hydrogen. The hadronic broadening is related to pion absorption and production at threshold. The results are ε 1s πD = (−2356 ± 31) meV (repulsive) and Γ 1s πD meV yielding for the complex πD scattering length a πD = [−(24.99±0.33)+i(6.22 −0.26 +0.12 )] × 10−3 m π −1 . From the imaginary part, the threshold parameter for pion production is obtained to be α = (251 −11 +5 ) μb. This allows, in addition, and by using results from pion absorption in 3He at threshold, the determination of the effective couplings g 0 and g 1 for s-wave pion absorption on isoscalar and isovector NN pairs.

The measurement of the pion-nucleon scattering lengths constitutes a high-precision test of the methods of Chiral Pertubation Theory, which is the low-energy approach of QCD. The pion-nucleon s-wave scattering lengths are related to the strong-interaction shift and width of the s-states of the pionic hydrogen atom. Shift and width are determined from the measured energies and line widths of X-ray transitions to the 1s ground state when compared to the calculated electromagnetic values. A new experiment, set up at the Paul-Scherrer-Institut, has completed a first series of measurements.

An unusual but effective way to determine at threshold the dpi<-->NN transition strength alpha is to exploit the hadronic ground-state broadening Gamma(1s) in pionic deuterium, accessible by x-ray spectroscopy. The broadening is dominated by the true absorption channel dpi(-)-->nn, which is related to s-wave pion production pp-->dpi(+) by charge symmetry and detailed balance. Using the exotic atom circumvents the problem of Coulomb corrections to the cross section as necessary in the production experiments. Our dedicated measurement finds Gamma(1s)=(1171(-49)(+23)) meV yielding alpha=(252(-11)(+5)) microb.

An unusual but effective way to determine at threshold the d{pi}{r_reversible}NN transition strength {alpha} is to exploit the hadronic ground-state broadening {Gamma}{sub 1s} in pionic deuterium, accessible by x-ray spectroscopy. The broadening is dominated by the true absorption channel d{pi}{sup -{yields}}nn, which is related to s-wave pion production pp{yields}d{pi}{sup +} by charge symmetry and detailed balance. Using the exotic atom circumvents the problem of Coulomb corrections to the cross section as necessary in the production experiments. Our dedicated measurement finds {Gamma}{sub 1s}=(1171{sub -49}{sup +23}) meV yielding {alpha}=(252{sub -11}{sup +5}) {mu}b.

The line shape of the (3p − 1s) X-ray transition in muonic hydrogen was measured for the first time with a high-resolution crystal spectrometer. The assumption of a statistical population of the hyperfine levels was directly confirmed by experiment, and a measured value for the hyperfine splitting is reported. An X-ray line broadening due to Doppler effect could be clearly identified and attributed to different Coulomb de-excitation transitions which precede the measured radiative transition. The results allow a decisive test of advanced cascade model calculations and establish an alternative and “model free” method to extract the strong-interaction parameters from pionic hydrogen data.

The ð 3 p (cid:1) 1 s Þ x-ray transition to the muonic hydrogen ground state was measured with a high-resolution crystal spectrometer. A Doppler effect broadening of the x-ray line was established which could be attributed to different Coulomb deexcitation steps preceding the measured transition. The assumption of a statistical population of the hyperfine levels of the muonic hydrogen ground state was directly confirmed by the experiment, and measured values for the hyperfine splitting can be reported. The results allow a decisive test

The (3p - 1s) X-ray transition to the muonic hydrogen ground state was measured with a high resolution crystal spectrometer. A Doppler effect broadening of the X-ray line was established which could be attributed to different Coulomb de-excitation steps preceding the measured transition. The assumption of a statistical population of the hyperfine levels of the muonic hydrogen ground state was directly confirmed by the experiment and measured values for the hyperfine splitting can be reported. The results allow a decisive test of advanced cascade model calculations and establish a method to extract fundamental strong-interaction parameters from pionic hydrogen experiments.

The most recent pionic-hydrogen experiment marks the completion of a whole series of measurements, the main goal of which was to provide conclusive data on pion-nucleon interaction at threshold for comparison with calculations from Chiral perturbation theory. The precision achieved for hadronic shift and broadening of 0.2% and 2%, respectively, became possible by comprehensive studies of cascade effects in hydrogen and other light exotic atoms including results from the last years of LEAR operation. In order to obtain optimum conditions for the Bragg crystal spectrometer, the cyclotron trap II has been used to provide a suitable X-ray source. To characterize the bent crystal spectrometer, the cyclotron trap has been modified to operate as an electron-cyclotron resonance source, which produces with high intensity narrow X-ray transitions in the few keV range originating from highly charged ions.

X-ray measurements at particle accelerators suffer from a high beam-induced background. For low-energy X-rays CCDs can solve this problem due to their pixel structure, which allows to reduce the background by a cluster analysis. To be able to measure at reasonably high count rates, fast read-out capable CCDs, so called pnCCDs, are used, which have been developed at the semiconductor laboratory of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for the XMM satellite mission. Recently an improved version of pnCCDs was developed. These chips will be available with different geometries, pixel size and allow a frame-store read-out. At the ZEL (Central Laboratory for Electronics) of the reseach center Julich a dedicated electronics for fast read-out was developed in collaboration with the MPI.