Time Resolved Spectroscopy Using Synchrotron Radiation

The time structure of synchrotron radiation from a single bunch of high-energy electrons circulating in a storage ring is readily exploited for studies of fast kinetic and radiative processes involving short-lived electronically-excited species in bulk matter. The sample is excited repetitively by very short bursts of monochromatized synchrotron radiation once each orbital period, as the radiation pattern associated with the radially accelerating electron bunch sweeps past an entrance aperture. Time resolved measurements of the rise and fall of features in the afterglow fluorescence spectrum are analyzed to yield rates for the formation and decay of the radiating species.