Imaging Molecular Structure through Femtosecond Photoelectron Diffraction on Aligned and Oriented Gas-Phase Molecules

Abstract

This paper gives an account of our progress towards performing femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron diffraction on gas-phase molecules in a pump-probe setup combining optical lasers and an X-ray Free-Electron Laser. We present results of two experiments aimed at measuring photoelectron angular distributions of laser-aligned 1-ethynyl-4-fluorobenzene (C8H5F) and dissociating, laseraligned 1,4-dibromobenzene (C6H4Br2) molecules and discuss them in the larger context of photoelectron diffraction on gas-phase molecules. We also show how the strong nanosecond laser pulse used for adiabatically laser-aligning the molecules influences the measured electron and ion spectra and angular distributions, and discuss how this may affect the outcome of future time-resolved photoelectron diffraction experiments.

24 pages, 10 figures, Faraday Discussions 171

References in corpus (6)

• Laser-induced alignment and orientation of quantum-state-selected large molecules
• X-ray diffraction from isolated and strongly aligned gas-phase molecules with a free-electron laser
• Laser-induced 3D alignment and orientation of quantum-state-selected molecules
• Imaging Molecules from Within: Ultra-fast, Ångström Scale Structure Determination of Molecules via Photoelectron Holography using Free Electron Lasers
• Field-free molecular alignment probed by the free electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH)
• Toward atomic resolution diffractive imaging of isolated molecules with x-ray free-electron lasers

Cited by in corpus (11)

• High-repetition-rate and high-photon-flux 70 eV high-harmonic source for coincidence ion imaging of gas-phase molecules
• Long-lasting field-free alignment of large molecules inside helium nanodroplets
• Toward atomic resolution diffractive imaging of isolated molecules with x-ray free-electron lasers
• Alignment, Orientation, and Coulomb Explosion of Difluoroiodobenzene Studied with the Pixel Imaging Mass Spectrometry (PImMS) Camera
• Strongly aligned gas-phase molecules at Free-Electron Lasers
• Imaging electron dynamics with time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy
• Characterization of a detector chain using a FPGA-based Time-to-Digital Converter to reconstruct the three-dimensional coordinates of single particles at high flux
• Photophysics of indole upon x-ray absorption
• Impulsive laser-induced alignment of OCS molecules at FERMI
• Time-resolving the UV-initiated photodissociation dynamics of OCS
• Tracking the surface atomic motion in a coherent phonon oscillation