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 electron and ion dynamics of warm dense matters and density, temperature and ionization state measurment of compressed plasmas. We also develop new technologies related to ultrafast lasers, x-ray sources, and detectors.

Streak camera (home-built) image of a single 60-picosecond broadband x-ray pulse from ALS.

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 LBNL. We have also worked on experiments at the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and OMEGA Laser Facility at Rochester University, and are planning experiments for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) x-ray laser, at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). You can often find us inside the ALS, above the Berkeley campus.