Paper

X-ray diffraction from isolated and strongly aligned gas-phase molecules with a free-electron laser

Gorkhover, Tais, Rudenko, Artem, Bozek, John, Caleman, Carl, Maurer, Jochen, Rudek, Benedikt, Coppola, Nicola, Meijer, Gerard, Vrakking, Marc J J, Foucar, Lutz, Schmidt, Carlo, Johnsson, Per, Hömke, Andre, Rouzée, Arnaud, Reich, Christian, Gumprecht, Lars, Wunderer, Cornelia, Stapelfeldt, Henrik, Weidenspointner, Georg, Erk, Benjamin, Thøgersen, Jan, Kimmel, Nils, Hartmann, Andreas, Krasniqi, Faton, Rolles, Daniel, Schulz, Joachim, Barty, Anton, Holmegaard, Lotte, Starodub, Dmitri, Chapman, Henry N, Spence, John C H, Strüder, Lothar, Delmas, Tjark, Hartmann, Robert, Filsinger, Frank, Bajt, Saša, Epp, Sascha, Ullrich, Joachim, Schorb, Sebastian, White, Thomas A, Adolph, Marcus, Santra, Robin, Schlichting, Ilme, Küpper, Jochen, Aquila, Andrew, Bostedt, Christoph, Coffee, Ryan, Stern, Stephan, Messerschmidt, Marc, Soltau, Heike, Mosshammer, Robert, Kühnel, Kai-Uwe, Martin, Andrew V, Hauser, Günter, Holl, Peter

2014

Overview

We report experimental results on x-ray diffraction of quantum-state-selected and strongly aligned ensembles of the prototypical asymmetric rotor molecule 2,5-diiodobenzonitrile using the Linac Coherent Light Source. The experiments demonstrate first steps toward a new approach to diffractive imaging of distinct structures of individual, isolated gas-phase molecules. We confirm several key ingredients of single molecule diffraction experiments: the abilities to detect and count individual scattered x-ray photons in single shot diffraction data, to deliver state-selected, e. g., structural-isomer-selected, ensembles of molecules to the x-ray interaction volume, and to strongly align the scattering molecules. Our approach, using ultrashort x-ray pulses, is suitable to study ultrafast dynamics of isolated molecules.

• Publisher: Cornell University Library, arXiv.org
• Subject: Alignment / Coherent light / Diffraction / Free electron lasers / Photons / X-ray diffraction