Structural and vibrational kinetics of photoexcitation processes using time resolved electron diffraction

Regularized weighted sine least-squares spectral analysis for gas electron diffraction data

Here, we present a new approach for obtaining radial distribution functions (RDF) from the electron diffraction data using a regularized weighted sine least-squares spectral analysis. It allows for explicitly transferring the measured experimental uncertainties in the reduced molecular scattering function to the produced RDF. We provide a numerical demonstration, discuss the uncertainties and correlations in the RDFs, and suggest a regularization parameter choice criterion. The approach is also applicable for other diffraction data, e.g., for x-ray or neutron diffraction of liquid samples.

Ultrafast Imaging of Molecular Dynamics Using Ultrafast Low-Frequency Lasers, X-ray Free Electron Lasers, and Electron Pulses

The requirement of high space-time resolution and brightness is a great challenge for imaging atomic motion and making molecular movies. Important breakthroughs in ultrabright tabletop laser, X-ray, and electron sources have enabled the direct imaging of evolving molecular structures in chemical processes, and recent experimental advances in preparing ultrafast laser and electron pulses resulted in molecular imaging with femtosecond time resolution. This Perspective presents an overview of the versatile imaging methods of molecular dynamics. High-order harmonic generation imaging and photoelectron diffraction imaging are based on laser-induced ionization and rescattering processes. Coulomb explosion imaging retrieves molecular structural information by detecting the momentum vectors of fragmented ions. Diffraction imaging encodes molecular structural and electronic information in reciprocal space. We also present various applications of these ultrafast imaging methods in resolving laser-induced nuclear and electronic dynamics.

The effect of Coulomb repulsion on the space-time resolution limits for ultrafast electron diffraction

The development of electron sources capable of temporal resolution on the order of 1 ps or less raises a number of questions associated with the estimation of the physical meaning and accuracy of the dynamic parameters based on the analysis of time-dependent scattering intensity. The use of low brightness ultrashort pulses with few electrons leads to the necessity for increasing the total exposure time and lengthening the time of data acquisition, with attendant problems with the limited sample. The sample restrictions can be mitigated by increasing the charge per pulse, i.e., by going to high brightness sources. Increasing in the number of electrons, however, is limited by the Coulomb repulsion between them, which leads on one hand to distortion of the diffraction pattern and on the other hand to an increase in the duration of the pulse. An analytical technique for estimating the deformation of the diffraction pattern caused by the Coulomb repulsion of the electrons in electron bunches with duration of less than 10 ps and the influence of this effect on the accuracy of determination of the interatomic distances is developed for the non-relativistic and relativistic regimes for electron energies.