arXiv subjects

Peter Walter

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Walter.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

A Deep Learning-based in silico Framework for Optimization on Retinal Prosthetic Stimulation

We propose a neural network-based framework to optimize the perceptions simulated by the in silico retinal implant model pulse2percept. The overall pipeline consists of a trainable encoder, a pre-trained retinal implant model and a pre-trained evaluator. The encoder is a U-Net, which takes the original image and outputs the stimulus. The pre-trained retinal implant model is also a U-Net, which is trained to mimic the biomimetic perceptual model implemented in pulse2percept. The evaluator is a shallow VGG classifier, which is trained with original images. Based on 10,000 test images from the MNIST dataset, we show that the convolutional neural network-based encoder performs significantly better than the trivial downsampling approach, yielding a boost in the weighted F1-Score by 36.17% in the pre-trained classifier with 6x10 electrodes. With this fully neural network-based encoder, the quality of the downstream perceptions can be fine-tuned using gradient descent in an end-to-end fashion.

eess.IV↗

arXiv2022

Enhanced ultrafast X-ray diffraction by transient resonances

Diffraction-before-destruction imaging with single ultrashort X-ray pulses has the potential to visualise non-equilibrium processes, such as chemical reactions, at the nanoscale with sub-femtosecond resolution in the native environment without the need of crystallization. Here, a nanospecimen partially diffracts a single X-ray flash before sample damage occurs. The structural information of the sample can be reconstructed from the coherent X-ray interference image. State-of-art spatial resolution of such snapshots from individual heavy element nanoparticles is limited to a few nanometers. Further improvement of spatial resolution requires higher image brightness which is ultimately limited by bleaching effects of the sample. We compared snapshots from individual 100 nm Xe nanoparticles as a function of the X-ray pulse duration and incoming X-ray intensity in the vicinity of the Xe M-shell resonance. Surprisingly, images recorded with few femtosecond and sub-femtosecond pulses are up to 10 times brighter than the static linear model predicts. Our Monte-Carlo simulation and statistical analysis of the entire data set confirms these findings and attributes the effect to transient resonances. Our simulation suggests that ultrafast form factor changes during the exposure can increase the brightness of X-ray images by several orders of magnitude. Our study guides the way towards imaging with unprecedented combination of spatial and temporal resolution at the nanoscale.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Multiscale Softmax Cross Entropy for Fovea Localization on Color Fundus Photography

Fovea localization is one of the most popular tasks in ophthalmic medical image analysis, where the coordinates of the center point of the macula lutea, i.e. fovea centralis, should be calculated based on color fundus images. In this work, we treat the localization problem as a classification task, where the coordinates of the x- and y-axis are considered as the target classes. Moreover, the combination of the softmax activation function and the cross entropy loss function is modified to its multiscale variation to encourage the predicted coordinates to be located closely to the ground-truths. Based on color fundus photography images, we empirically show that the proposed multiscale softmax cross entropy yields better performance than the vanilla version and than the mean squared error loss with sigmoid activation, which provides a novel approach for coordinate regression.

eess.IV↗

arXiv2021

The Time-resolved Atomic, Molecular and Optical Science Instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source

The newly constructed Time-resolved atomic, Molecular and Optical science instrument (TMO), is configured to take full advantage of both linear accelerators at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the copper accelerator operating at a repetition rate of 120 Hz providing high per pulse energy, as well as the superconducting accelerator operating at a repetition rate of about 1 MHz providing high average intensity. Both accelerators build a soft X-ray free electron laser with the new variable gab undulator section. With this flexible light sources, TMO supports many experimental techniques not previously available at LCLS and will have two X-ray beam focus spots in line. Thereby, TMO supports Atomic, Molecular and Optical (AMO), strong-field and nonlinear science and will host a designated new dynamic reaction microscope with a sub-micron X-ray focus spot. The flexible instrument design is optimized for studying ultrafast electronic and molecular phenomena and can take full advantage of the sub-femtosecond soft X-ray pulse generation program.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2021

Resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization in the x-ray regime

Here, we report on the nonlinear ionization of argon atoms in the short wavelength regime using ultraintense x rays from the European XFEL. After sequential multiphoton ionization, high charge states are obtained. For photon energies that are insufficient to directly ionize a $1s$ electron, a different mechanism is required to obtain ionization to Ar$^{17+}$. We propose this occurs through a two-color process where the second harmonic of the FEL pulse resonantly excites the system via a $1s \rightarrow 2p$ transition followed by ionization by the fundamental FEL pulse, which is a type of x-ray resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI). This resonant phenomenon occurs not only for Ar$^{16+}$, but through multiple lower charge states, where multiple ionization competes with decay lifetimes, making x-ray REMPI distinctive from conventional REMPI. With the aid of state-of-the-art theoretical calculations, we explain the effects of x-ray REMPI on the relevant ion yields and spectral profile.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2021

Attosecond Coherent Electron Motion in Auger-Meitner Decay

In quantum systems, coherent superpositions of electronic states evolve on ultrafast timescales (few femtosecond to attosecond, 1 as = 0.001 fs = 10^{-18} s), leading to a time dependent charge density. Here we exploit the first attosecond soft x-ray pulses produced by an x-ray free-electron laser to induce a coherent core-hole excitation in nitric oxide. Using an additional circularly polarized infrared laser pulse we create a clock to time-resolve the electron dynamics, and demonstrate control of the coherent electron motion by tuning the photon energy of the x-ray pulse. Core-excited states offer a fundamental test bed for studying coherent electron dynamics in highly excited and strongly correlated matter.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2021

Multi-Resolution Electron Spectrometer Array for Future Free-Electron Laser Experiments

We report the design of an angular array of electron Time-of-Flight (eToF) spectrometers intended for non-invasive spectral, temporal, and polarization characterization of single shots of high-repetition rate, quasi-continuous, short-wavelength Free-Electron Lasers (FELs) such as the LCLS-II at SLAC. This array also enables angle-resolved, high-resolution eToF spectroscopy to address a variety of scientific questions of ultrafast and nonlinear light--matter interaction at FELs. The presented device is specifically designed for the Time-resolved atomic, Molecular and Optical science end station (TMO) at LCLS-II. In its final version, it can comprise of up to 20 eToF spectrometers aligned to collect electrons from the interaction point defined by the intersection of the incoming FEL radiation and a gaseous target. There are 16 such spectrometers forming a circular equiangular array in the plane normal to x-ray propagation and 4 spectrometers at 54.7$^\circ$ angle relative to the principle linear x-ray polarization axis. The spectrometers are capable of independent and minimally chromatic electrostatic lensing and retardation in order to enable simultaneous angle-resolved photo-electron and Auger electron spectroscopy with high energy resolution. They are designed to ensure energy resolution of 0.25 eV across an energy window of up to 75 eV which can be individually centered via the adjustable retardation to cover ranges of electron kinetic energies relevant to soft x-ray methods, 0--2 keV. The full spectrometer array will enable non-invasive and online spectral-polarimetry measurements, polarization-sensitive attoclock spectroscopy for characterizing the full time--energy structure of even SASE or seeded LCLS-II pulses, and also supports emerging trends in molecular frame spectroscopy measurements.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Site-specific Interrogation of an Ionic Chiral Fragment During Photolysis Using an X-ray Free-Electron Laser

Short-wavelength free-electron lasers with their ultrashort pulses at high intensities have originated new approaches for tracking molecular dynamics from the vista of specific sites. X-ray pump X-ray probe schemes even allow to address individual atomic constituents with a 'trigger'-event that preludes the subsequent molecular dynamics while being able to selectively probe the evolving structure with a time-delayed second X-ray pulse. Here, we use a linearly polarized X-ray photon to trigger the photolysis of a prototypical chiral molecule, namely trifluoromethyloxirane (C$_3$H$_3$F$_3$O), at the fluorine K-edge at around 700 eV. The evolving fluorine-containing fragments are then probed by a second, circularly polarized X-ray pulse of higher photon energy in order to investigate the chemically shifted inner-shell electrons of the ionic motherfragment for their stereochemical sensitivity. We experimentally demonstrate and theoretically support how two-color X-ray pump X-ray probe experiments with polarization control enable XFELs as tools for chiral recognition.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2020

An advanced workflow for single particle imaging with the limited data at an X-ray free-electron laser

An improved analysis for single particle imaging (SPI) experiments, using the limited data, is presented here. Results are based on a study of bacteriophage PR772 performed at the AMO instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) as part of the SPI initiative. Existing methods were modified to cope with the shortcomings of the experimental data: inaccessibility of information from the half of the detector and small fraction of single hits. General SPI analysis workflow was upgraded with the expectation-maximization based classification of diffraction patterns and mode decomposition on the final virus structure determination step. The presented processing pipeline allowed us to determine the three-dimensional structure of the bacteriophage PR772 without symmetry constraints with a spatial resolution of 6.9 nm. The obtained resolution was limited by the scattering intensity during the experiment and the relatively small number of single hits.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2020

Shapes of rotating normal fluid 3He versus superfluid 4He droplets in molecular beams

Previous single-pulse extreme ultraviolet and X-ray coherent diffraction studies revealed that superfluid 4He droplets obtained in free jet expansion acquire sizable angular momentum, resulting in significant centrifugal distortion. Similar experiments with normal fluid 3He droplets may help elucidating the origin of the of the large degree of rotational excitation and highlight similarities and differences of dynamics in normal and superfluid droplets. Here, we present the first comparison of the shapes of isolated 3He and 4He droplets following expansion of the corresponding fluids in vacuum at temperatures as low as ~ 2 K. Large 3He and 4He droplets with average radii of ~160 nm and ~350 nm, respectively, were produced. We find that the majority of the 3He droplets in the beam correspond to rotating oblate spheroids with reduced average angular momentum ($Λ$) and reduced angular velocities ($Ω$) similar to that of 4He droplets. Given the different physical nature of 3He and 4He, this similarity in $Λ$ and $Ω$ may be surprising and suggest that similar mechanisms induce rotation regardless of the isotope. We hypothesized that the observed distribution of droplet sizes and angular momenta stem from processes in the dense region close to the nozzle. In this region, the significant velocity spread and collisions between the droplets induce excessive rotation followed by droplet fission. The process may repeat itself several times before the droplets enter the collision-fee high vacuum region further downstream.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2019

Angular momentum in rotating superfluid droplets

The angular momentum of rotating superfluid droplets originates from quantized vortices and capillary waves, the interplay between which remains to be uncovered. Here, the rotation of isolated sub-micrometer superfluid 4He droplets is studied by ultrafast x-ray diffraction using a free electron laser. The diffraction patterns provide simultaneous access to the morphology of the droplets and the vortex arrays they host. In capsule-shaped droplets, vortices form a distorted triangular lattice, whereas they arrange along elliptical contours in ellipsoidal droplets. The combined action of vortices and capillary waves results in droplet shapes close to those of classical droplets rotating with the same angular velocity. The findings are corroborated by density functional theory calculations describing the velocity fields and shape deformations of a rotating superfluid cylinder.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2019

Attosecond Transient Absorption Spooktroscopy: a ghost imaging approach to ultrafast absorption spectroscopy

The recent demonstration of isolated attosecond pulses from an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) opens the possibility for probing ultrafast electron dynamics at X-ray wavelengths. An established experimental method for probing ultrafast dynamics is X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy, where the X-ray absorption spectrum is measured by scanning the central photon energy and recording the resultant photoproducts. The spectral bandwidth inherent to attosecond pulses is wide compared to the resonant features typically probed, which generally precludes the application of this technique in the attosecond regime. In this paper we propose and demonstrate a new technique to conduct transient absorption spectroscopy with broad bandwidth attosecond pulses with the aid of ghost imaging, recovering sub-bandwidth resolution in photoproduct-based absorption measurements.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2019

Tunable Isolated Attosecond X-ray Pulses with Gigawatt Peak Power from a Free-Electron Laser

The quantum mechanical motion of electrons in molecules and solids occurs on the sub-femtosecond timescale. Consequently, the study of ultrafast electronic phenomena requires the generation of laser pulses shorter than 1 fs and of sufficient intensity to interact with their target with high probability. Probing these dynamics with atomic-site specificity requires the extension of sub-femtosecond pulses to the soft X-ray spectral region. Here we report the generation of isolated GW-scale soft X-ray attosecond pulses with an X-ray free-electron laser. Our source has a pulse energy that is six orders of magnitude larger than any other source of isolated attosecond pulses in the soft X-ray spectral region, with a peak power in the tens of gigawatts. This unique combination of high intensity, high photon energy and short pulse duration enables the investigation of electron dynamics with X-ray non-linear spectroscopy and single-particle imaging.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Observation of a metastable intermediate during solid-solid phase transformation in response to rapid compression

In order to probe the mechanism of solid-solid phase transformations, we have applied ultrafast shock wave compression (120 picosecond duration) and ultrashort (130 femtosecond) x-ray diffraction at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to probe the compression-induced phase transition pathway in zirconium. Surprisingly, rather than transform from alpha-Zr to the more disordered hex-3 equilibrium omega-Zr phase, in its place we find the formation of a non-equilibrium body-centered cubic (bcc) metastable intermediate. Theoretically hypothesized for several decades, this bcc intermediate state has now been found to be dynamically stabilized under uniaxial loading at sub-nanosecond timescales. Molecular dynamics simulations of shock-wave propagation in zirconium predict this transformation via the dynamical intermediate state. In contrast with longer timescale experiments where the phase diagram alone is an adequate predictor of the crystalline structure of a material, our recent study highlights the importance of metastability and time-dependence in the kinetics of phase transformation at extreme conditions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗