An x-ray probe of laser-aligned molecules

Abstract

We demonstrate a hard x-ray probe of laser-aligned small molecules. To align small molecules with optical lasers, high intensities at nonresonant wavelengths are necessary. We use 95 ps pulses focused to 40 mum from an 800 nm Ti:sapphire laser at a peak intensity of 10^12 W/cm^2 to create an ensemble of aligned bromotrifluoromethane (CF3Br) molecules. Linearly polarized, 120 ps x-ray pulses, focused to 10 mum, tuned to the Br 1s --> sigma* pre-edge resonance at 13.476 keV, probe the ensemble of laser-aligned molecules. The demonstrated methodology has a variety of applications and can enable ultrafast imaging of laser-controlled molecular motions with Angstrom-level resolution.

4 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX4, corrected typos

References in corpus (2)

• Femtosecond Diffractive Imaging with a Soft-X-ray Free-Electron Laser
• Theory of x-ray absorption by laser-aligned symmetric-top molecules

Cited by in corpus (8)

• X-ray diffraction from isolated and strongly aligned gas-phase molecules with a free-electron laser
• Quantum-state selection, alignment, and orientation of large molecules using static electric and laser fields
• Theory of attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy of strong-field-generated ions
• Atomic and molecular dynamics triggered by ultrashort light pulses on the atto- to picosecond time scale
• Computational studies of x-ray scattering from three-dimensionally-aligned asymmetric-top molecules
• Alignment of asymmetric-top molecules using multiple-pulse trains
• X-ray refractive index of laser-dressed atoms
• Rotational molecular dynamics of laser-manipulated bromotrifluoromethane studied by x-ray absorption