Time-Resolved Electron Diffraction from Selectively Aligned Molecules

Authors

• Peter Reckenthaeler, Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik
• Martin Centurion, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Werner Fuß, Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik
• Sergei A. Trushin, Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik
• Ferenc Krausz, Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik
• Ernst E. Fill, Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

5-2009

Comments

Published in PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 102, 213001 (2009). Copyright (c) 2009 The American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate ultrafast electron diffraction from transiently aligned molecules in the absence of external (aligning) fields. A sample of aligned molecules is generated through photodissociation with femtosecond laser pulses, and the diffraction pattern is captured by probing the sample with picosecond electron pulses shortly after dissociation—before molecular rotation causes the alignment to vanish. In our experiments the alignment decays with a time constant of 2.6 ± 1.2 ps.