Imaging of alignment and structural changes of carbon disulfide molecules using ultrafast electron diffraction

Authors

Jie Yang, University of Nebraska—LincolnFollow
Joshua Beck, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Cornelis J. Uiterwaal, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Martin Centurion, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

9-2015

Citation

Published in Nature Communications 6, Article number: 8172
doi:10.1038/ncomms9172
Published 04 September 2015

Comments

Archived here is the arXiv version, posted Sat, 18 Apr 2015 22:23:18 GMT; online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.6429 (Macmillan does not permit posting of the Nature Communications file)

Abstract

Imaging the structure of molecules in transient-excited states remains a challenge due to the extreme requirements for spatial and temporal resolution. Ultrafast electron diffraction from aligned molecules provides atomic resolution and allows for the retrieval of structural information without the need to rely on theoretical models. Here we use ultrafast electron diffraction from aligned molecules and femtosecond laser mass spectrometry to investigate the dynamics in carbon disulfide following the interaction with an intense femtosecond laser pulse. We observe that the degree of alignment reaches an upper limit at laser intensities below the ionization threshold, and find evidence of structural deformation, dissociation and ionization at higher laser intensities.