skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Diffractive imaging of coherent nuclear motion in isolated molecules

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters

Observing the motion of the nuclear wave packets during a molecular reaction, in both space and time, is crucial for understanding and controlling the outcome of photoinduced chemical reactions. We have imaged the motion of a vibrational wave packet in isolated iodine molecules using ultrafast electron diffraction with relativistic electrons. The time-varying interatomic distance was measured with a precision 0.07 Å and temporal resolution of 230 fs full width at half maximum. As a result, the method is not only sensitive to the position but also the shape of the nuclear wave packet.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; SC0014170; IIA-1430519
OSTI ID:
1331204
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1328470; OSTI ID: 1348858
Report Number(s):
SLAC-PUB-16860; PRLTAO; TRN: US1601861
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 15; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 105 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (39)

Imaging Molecular Motion: Femtosecond X-Ray Scattering of an Electrocyclic Chemical Reaction journal June 2015
Dark Structures in Molecular Radiationless Transitions Determined by Ultrafast Diffraction journal January 2005
Reinvestigation of the Molecular Structure of 1,3,5,7‐Cyclooctatetraene by Electron Diffraction journal December 1957
The Ultrafast Pathway of Photon-Induced Electrocyclic Ring-Opening Reactions: The Case of 1,3-Cyclohexadiene journal May 2011
elsepa—Dirac partial-wave calculation of elastic scattering of electrons and positrons by atoms, positive ions and molecules journal January 2005
Ultrafast diffraction and structural dynamics: The nature of complex molecules far from equilibrium journal June 2001
Direct observation of collective modes coupled to molecular orbital-driven charge transfer journal December 2015
Mapping molecular motions leading to charge delocalization with ultrabright electrons journal April 2013
Imaging of Isolated Molecules with Ultrafast Electron Pulses journal September 2012
Ultrafast time-resolved electron diffraction with megavolt electron beams journal October 2006
Erratum : Reinvestigation of the Molecular Structure of 1,3,5,7‐Cyclooctatetraene journal March 1958
Imaging of alignment and structural changes of carbon disulfide molecules using ultrafast electron diffraction journal September 2015
Time-Resolved Molecular Frame Dynamics of Fixed-in-Space CS2 Molecules journal March 2009
Time-Resolved Electron Diffraction from Selectively Aligned Molecules journal May 2009
Imaging an aligned polyatomic molecule with laser-induced electron diffraction journal June 2015
Mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory journal July 2015
Single shot time stamping of ultrabright radio frequency compressed electron pulses journal July 2013
Mechanism and Dynamics of Azobenzene Photoisomerization journal July 2003
Reconstruction of three-dimensional molecular structure from diffraction of laser-aligned molecules journal July 2014
Mapping atomic motions with ultrabright electrons: towards fundamental limits in space-time resolution journal January 2015
Imaging ultrafast molecular dynamics with laser-induced electron diffraction journal March 2012
Diffractive imaging of a rotational wavepacket in nitrogen molecules with femtosecond megaelectronvolt electron pulses journal April 2016
Time-Resolved Photoelectron Spectra of CS 2 : Dynamics at Conical Intersections journal March 2014
Experimental observation of high-brightness microbunching in a photocathode rf electron gun journal October 1996
The Validity of the "Diradical" Hypothesis: Direct Femtoscond Studies of the Transition-State Structures journal November 1994
Compression of Subrelativistic Space-Charge-Dominated Electron Bunches for Single-Shot Femtosecond Electron Diffraction journal December 2010
Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure book January 1979
Direct Imaging of Transient Molecular Structures with Ultrafast Diffraction journal January 2001
Self-Referenced Coherent Diffraction X-Ray Movie of Ångstrom- and Femtosecond-Scale Atomic Motion journal October 2016
Pump–probe diffraction imaging of vibrational wave functions journal May 1998
Imaging single electrons to enable the generation of ultrashort beams for single-shot femtosecond relativistic electron diffraction journal October 2011
Direct observation of the femtosecond excited-state cis-trans isomerization in bacteriorhodopsin journal May 1988
Time-resolved imaging of purely valence-electron dynamics during a chemical reaction journal April 2011
Ultrafast Electron Diffraction (UED): A New Development for the 4D Determination of Transient Molecular Structures journal June 2003
Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure journal November 1929
Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure journal October 1929
Ultrafast Electron Diffraction (UED). A New Development for the 4D Determination of Transient Molecular Structures journal October 2003
Compression of sub-relativistic space-charge-dominated electron bunches for single-shot femtosecond electron diffraction text January 2010
Imaging an aligned polyatomic molecule with laser-induced electron diffraction text January 2015

Cited By (47)

Räumliche Trennung der Konformere eines Dipeptids journal September 2018
Spatially Separating the Conformers of a Dipeptide journal October 2018
Different flavors of nonadiabatic molecular dynamics journal April 2019
Conical-intersection dynamics and ground-state chemistry probed by extreme-ultraviolet time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy journal August 2018
All-optical field-free three-dimensional orientation of asymmetric-top molecules journal December 2018
Long-lasting field-free alignment of large molecules inside helium nanodroplets journal January 2019
The photochemical ring-opening of 1,3-cyclohexadiene imaged by ultrafast electron diffraction journal April 2019
Ultrafast X-ray scattering reveals vibrational coherence following Rydberg excitation journal July 2019
A direct electron detector for time-resolved MeV electron microscopy journal March 2017
High current table-top setup for femtosecond gas electron diffraction journal July 2017
Theoretical study of ultrafast x-ray photoelectron diffraction from molecules undergoing photodissociation journal March 2018
Communication: Strong laser alignment of solvent-solute aggregates in the gas-phase journal March 2018
Atomic-resolution imaging of carbonyl sulfide by laser-induced electron diffraction journal June 2019
Scattering off molecules far from equilibrium journal August 2019
Femtosecond gas-phase mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction journal September 2019
Excited-state dynamics of molecules with classically driven trajectories and Gaussians journal September 2019
Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics journal January 2018
Attomicroscopy: from femtosecond to attosecond electron microscopy journal January 2018
Roadmap on photonic, electronic and atomic collision physics: II. Electron and antimatter interactions journal August 2019
Time-resolved photoelectron angular distributions from nonadiabatically aligned CO 2 molecules with SX-FEL at SACLA journal November 2018
On the limits of observing motion in time-resolved X-ray scattering
  • Ware, Matthew R.; Glownia, James M.; Natan, Adi
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2145 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0477
journal April 2019
Energy-resolved coherent diffraction from laser-driven electronic motion in atoms journal October 2017
Multiple-orbital effects in laser-induced electron diffraction of aligned molecules journal October 2018
Strong-field- versus weak-field-ionization pump-probe spectroscopy journal November 2018
Violation of centrosymmetry in time-resolved coherent x-ray diffraction from rovibrational states of diatomic molecules journal March 2019
Real-Time Observation of Internal Motion within Ultrafast Dissipative Optical Soliton Molecules journal June 2017
Imaging CF 3 I conical intersection and photodissociation dynamics with ultrafast electron diffraction journal July 2018
Ultrafast isomerization in acetylene dication after carbon K-shell ionization text January 2017
Laser-induced alignment of weakly bound molecular aggregates text January 2018
Molecular movie of ultrafast coherent rotational dynamics of OCS text January 2019
Ultrashort Free-Electron Laser X-ray Pulses journal September 2017
Recent Advances in Ultrafast Structural Techniques journal April 2019
Ultrafast isomerization in acetylene dication after carbon K-shell ionization journal September 2017
Laser-induced alignment of weakly bound molecular aggregates journal November 2018
Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics text January 2019
Ultrashort Free-Electron Laser X-ray Pulses text January 2017
Communication: Strong laser alignment of solvent-solute aggregates in the gas-phase text January 2018
Conical-intersection dynamics and ground-state chemistry probed by extreme-ultraviolet time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy text January 2018
Time-resolved inner-shell photoelectron spectroscopy: From a bound molecule to an isolated atom text January 2018
Atomic-resolution imaging of carbonyl sulfide by laser-induced electron diffraction text January 2019
Excited-state dynamics of molecules with classically driven trajectories and Gaussians text January 2019
Molecular movie of ultrafast coherent rotational dynamics of OCS journal July 2019
Spatially Separating the Conformers of a Dipeptide text January 2018
Excited-state dynamics of molecules with classically driven trajectories and Gaussians text January 2019
Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics text January 2018
Attomicroscopy: from Femtosecond to Attosecond Electron Microscopy text January 2018
Terahertz streaking of few-femtosecond relativistic electron beams text January 2018

Similar Records

Diffractive Imaging of Coherent Nuclear Motion in Isolated Molecules
Journal Article · Mon Oct 03 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Physical Review Letters · OSTI ID:1331204

Diffractive imaging of dissociation and ground-state dynamics in a complex molecule
Journal Article · Fri Aug 02 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Physical Review A · OSTI ID:1331204

Coherent femtosecond low-energy single-electron pulses for time-resolved diffraction and imaging: A numerical study
Journal Article · Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Journal of Applied Physics · OSTI ID:1331204