Welcome to the Falcone Research Group at the Department of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. The natural world is a dynamic place, and our research is concerned with measuring and controlling dynamics on the length and time scales of atomic and molecular motion (nanometers and femtoseconds, and shorter). We focus on the study of ultrafast phenomena in condensed matter, molecular, and atomic physics. Typically, we initiate dynamics by depositing energy with short-duration laser pulses, and then probe the resulting excited material using time-resolved X-ray scattering techniques.

Some of our recent experiments are to further out understanding of the materials under extreme conditions, e.g. exploring electronic structure and thermophysical properties of warm dense matters and density, temperature and ionization state measurment of high energy density plasmas. We also develop new technologies related to ultrafast lasers, X-ray sources, and detectors.

(a) Schematic of an X-ray Streak Camera (b) A sinlge-shot streaked 60-ps broadband X-ray pulse near Carbon K-edge.
[Cho, et al. SRN 25, 12 (2012)]

Much of our recent work has been conducted at Beamline 6.0.2 at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) synchrotron and our laser lab at LBL. We have also worked on experiments at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser at SLAC, Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) at LLNL and OMEGA Laser Facility at Rochester University. You can often find us inside the ALS, above the Berkeley campus.