Time-resolved imaging using x-ray free electron lasers

The ultra-intense, ultra-short x-ray pulses provided by x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) sources are ideally suited to time-resolved studies of structural dynamics with spatial resolution from nanometre to atomic length scales and a temporal resolution of 10 fs or less. With enough photons in a single pulse to enable single-shot measurements and short enough pulses to freeze atomic motion, researchers now have a new window into the time evolution ultrafast phenomena that are intrinsically not cyclic in nature. In this paper we recap some of the key time-resolved imaging experiments performed at FLASH and look ahead to a new generation of experiments at higher resolution using a new generation of new XFEL sources that are only just becoming available.