Desorption of an organic conducting polymer by soft X-ray radiation created by a femtosecond laser

The possibility of the desorption of complicated molecular complexes by soft X rays resulting from a solid target irradiated by a single sharply focused femtosecond laser pulse with an energy of several millijoules has been experimentally demonstrated for polyaniline, which is an organic conducting polymer. X-ray desorption and photodesorption of polyaniline by femtosecond laser pulses have been compared using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The results provide the possibility of studying surfaces with spatial nanoresolution and high elemental (chemical) selectivity, as well as observing the photodesorption with a high temporal resolution.