X-ray diffractive imaging of controlled gas-phase molecules: Toward imaging of dynamics in the molecular frame
Thomas Kierspel, Andrew J. Morgan, Joss Wiese, Terry Mullins, Andy Aquila, Anton Barty, Richard Bean, Rebecca Boll, Sébastien Boutet, P. H. Bucksbaum, Henry N. Chapman, Lauge Christensen, Alan Fry, Mark S. Hunter, Jason E. Koglin, Mengning Liang, Valerio Mariani, Adi Natan, Joseph S. Robinson, Daniel Rolles, Artem Rudenko, Kirsten Schnorr, Henrik Stapelfeldt, Stephan Stern, Jan Thøgersen, Chun Hong Yoon, Fenglin Wang, Jochen Küpper
Abstract
We report experimental results on the diffractive imaging of three-dimensionally aligned 2,5-diiodothiophene molecules. The molecules were aligned by chirped near-infrared laser pulses, and their structure was probed at a photon energy of 9.5 keV (λ ≈ 130 pm) provided by the Linac Coherent Light Source. Diffracted photons were recorded on the Cornell-SLAC pixel array detector, and a two-dimensional diffraction pattern of the equilibrium structure of 2,5-diiodothiophene was recorded. The retrieved distance between the two iodine atoms agrees with the quantum-chemically calculated molecular structure to be within 5%. The experimental approach allows for the imaging of intrinsic molecular dynamics in the molecular frame, albeit this requires more experimental data, which should be readily available at upcoming high-repetition-rate facilities.