학술논문
Photoelectron Diffraction Imaging of a Molecular Breakup Using an X-Ray Free-Electron Laser
Document Type
article
Author
Kastirke, Gregor; Schöffler, Markus S; Weller, Miriam; Rist, Jonas; Boll, Rebecca; Anders, Nils; Baumann, Thomas M; Eckart, Sebastian; Erk, Benjamin; De Fanis, Alberto; Fehre, Kilian; Gatton, Averell; Grundmann, Sven; Grychtol, Patrik; Hartung, Alexander; Hofmann, Max; Ilchen, Markus; Janke, Christian; Kircher, Max; Kunitski, Maksim; Li, Xiang; Mazza, Tommaso; Melzer, Niklas; Montano, Jacobo; Music, Valerija; Nalin, Giammarco; Ovcharenko, Yevheniy; Pier, Andreas; Rennhack, Nils; Rivas, Daniel E; Dörner, Reinhard; Rolles, Daniel; Rudenko, Artem; Schmidt, Philipp; Siebert, Juliane; Strenger, Nico; Trabert, Daniel; Vela-Perez, Isabel; Wagner, Rene; Weber, Thorsten; Williams, Joshua B; Ziolkowski, Pawel; Schmidt, Lothar Ph H; Czasch, Achim; Trinter, Florian; Meyer, Michael; Ueda, Kiyoshi; Demekhin, Philipp V; Jahnke, Till
Source
Physical Review X. 10(2)
Subject
Language
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 O2 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.