1. X-ray diffractive imaging of controlled gas-phase molecules: Toward imaging of dynamics in the molecular frame
- Author
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Fenglin Wang, Chun Hong Yoon, Joseph Robinson, Anton Barty, Adi Natan, Jochen Küpper, Stephan Stern, Mark S. Hunter, Rebecca Boll, Alan Fry, Mengning Liang, Artem Rudenko, Philip H. Bucksbaum, Richard Bean, Valerio Mariani, Sébastien Boutet, Henry N. Chapman, Jan Thøgersen, Henrik Stapelfeldt, Lauge Christensen, Jason E. Koglin, Andrew Aquila, Andrew J. Morgan, Joss Wiese, Kirsten Schnorr, Terry Mullins, Daniel Rolles, and Thomas Kierspel
- Subjects
Diffraction ,Photon ,FOS: Physical sciences ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Photon energy ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,Linear particle accelerator ,law.invention ,Molecular dynamics ,law ,Physics - Chemical Physics ,0103 physical sciences ,ddc:530 ,Physics - Atomic and Molecular Clusters ,Physical and Theoretical Chemistry ,Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) ,Physics ,010304 chemical physics ,Detector ,X-ray ,Laser ,0104 chemical sciences ,3. Good health ,Atomic physics ,Atomic and Molecular Clusters (physics.atm-clus) - Abstract
We report experimental results on the diffractive imaging of three-dimensionally aligned 2,5-diiodothiophene molecules. The molecules were aligned by chirped near-infrared laser pulses, and their structure was probed at a photon energy of 9.5 keV (λ ≈ 130 pm) provided by the Linac Coherent Light Source. Diffracted photons were recorded on the Cornell-SLAC pixel array detector, and a two-dimensional diffraction pattern of the equilibrium structure of 2,5-diiodothiophene was recorded. The retrieved distance between the two iodine atoms agrees with the quantum-chemically calculated molecular structure to be within 5%. The experimental approach allows for the imaging of intrinsic molecular dynamics in the molecular frame, albeit this requires more experimental data, which should be readily available at upcoming high-repetition-rate facilities.
- Published
- 2020