Violation of centrosymmetry in time-resolved coherent x-ray diffraction from rovibrational states of diatomic molecules

Authors

Hua-Chieh Shao, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Anthony F. Starace, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

3-18-2019

Citation

PHYSICAL REVIEW A 99, 033413 (2019)

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.99.033413

Comments

©2019 American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

Owing to increasing applications of time-resolved coherent x-ray scattering for the investigation of molecular reaction dynamics, we develop a theoretical model for time-dependent x-ray diffraction from molecular and/or electronic motion in molecules. Our model shows that the violation of centrosymmetry (VOC) is a general phenomenon in time-resolved diffraction patterns. We employ our theoretical model to illustrate the VOC in time-resolved coherent x-ray diffraction from two oriented diatomic molecules undergoing rovibrational motion: lithium hydride (LiD) and hydrogen (HD). Our simulations show asymmetric x-ray diffraction images that reflect the directions of the molecular motions.