Physical Review X (Jun 2020)
Photoelectron Diffraction Imaging of a Molecular Breakup Using an X-Ray Free-Electron Laser
- Gregor Kastirke,
- Markus S. Schöffler,
- Miriam Weller,
- Jonas Rist,
- Rebecca Boll,
- Nils Anders,
- Thomas M. Baumann,
- Sebastian Eckart,
- Benjamin Erk,
- Alberto De Fanis,
- Kilian Fehre,
- Averell Gatton,
- Sven Grundmann,
- Patrik Grychtol,
- Alexander Hartung,
- Max Hofmann,
- Markus Ilchen,
- Christian Janke,
- Max Kircher,
- Maksim Kunitski,
- Xiang Li,
- Tommaso Mazza,
- Niklas Melzer,
- Jacobo Montano,
- Valerija Music,
- Giammarco Nalin,
- Yevheniy Ovcharenko,
- Andreas Pier,
- Nils Rennhack,
- Daniel E. Rivas,
- Reinhard Dörner,
- Daniel Rolles,
- Artem Rudenko,
- Philipp Schmidt,
- Juliane Siebert,
- Nico Strenger,
- Daniel Trabert,
- Isabel Vela-Perez,
- Rene Wagner,
- Thorsten Weber,
- Joshua B. Williams,
- Pawel Ziolkowski,
- Lothar Ph. H. Schmidt,
- Achim Czasch,
- Florian Trinter,
- Michael Meyer,
- Kiyoshi Ueda,
- Philipp V. Demekhin,
- Till Jahnke
Affiliations
- Gregor Kastirke
- Markus S. Schöffler
- Miriam Weller
- Jonas Rist
- Rebecca Boll
- Nils Anders
- Thomas M. Baumann
- Sebastian Eckart
- Benjamin Erk
- Alberto De Fanis
- Kilian Fehre
- Averell Gatton
- Sven Grundmann
- Patrik Grychtol
- Alexander Hartung
- Max Hofmann
- Markus Ilchen
- Christian Janke
- Max Kircher
- Maksim Kunitski
- Xiang Li
- Tommaso Mazza
- Niklas Melzer
- Jacobo Montano
- Valerija Music
- Giammarco Nalin
- Yevheniy Ovcharenko
- Andreas Pier
- Nils Rennhack
- Daniel E. Rivas
- Reinhard Dörner
- Daniel Rolles
- Artem Rudenko
- Philipp Schmidt
- Juliane Siebert
- Nico Strenger
- Daniel Trabert
- Isabel Vela-Perez
- Rene Wagner
- Thorsten Weber
- Joshua B. Williams
- Pawel Ziolkowski
- Lothar Ph. H. Schmidt
- Achim Czasch
- Florian Trinter
- Michael Meyer
- Kiyoshi Ueda
- Philipp V. Demekhin
- Till Jahnke
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.021052
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 10,
no. 2
p. 021052
Abstract
A central motivation for the development of x-ray free-electron lasers has been the prospect of time-resolved single-molecule imaging with atomic resolution. Here, we show that x-ray photoelectron diffraction—where a photoelectron emitted after x-ray absorption illuminates the molecular structure from within—can be used to image the increase of the internuclear distance during the x-ray-induced fragmentation of an O_{2} molecule. By measuring the molecular-frame photoelectron emission patterns for a two-photon sequential K-shell ionization in coincidence with the fragment ions, and by sorting the data as a function of the measured kinetic energy release, we can resolve the elongation of the molecular bond by approximately 1.2 a.u. within the duration of the x-ray pulse. The experiment paves the road toward time-resolved pump-probe photoelectron diffraction imaging at high-repetition-rate x-ray free-electron lasers.
