Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 7, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11232
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Funding
- US Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-AC02-76SF00515]
- DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences Scientific User Facilities Division
- SLAC UED/UEM Initiative Program Development Fund
- AMOS program within the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, US Department of Energy
- US Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-SC0003931]
- National Science Foundation EPSCoR RII Track-2 CA Award [IIA-1430519]
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0003931] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
- Office of Integrative Activities [1430519] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Office of Integrative Activities
- Office Of The Director [1430493] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Office Of The Director [1430519] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Imaging changes in molecular geometries on their natural femtosecond timescale with sub-Angstrom spatial precision is one of the critical challenges in the chemical sciences, as the nuclear geometry changes determine the molecular reactivity. For photoexcited molecules, the nuclear dynamics determine the photoenergy conversion path and efficiency. Here we report a gas-phase electron diffraction experiment using megaelectronvolt (MeV) electrons, where we captured the rotational wavepacket dynamics of nonadiabatically laser-aligned nitrogen molecules. We achieved a combination of 100 fs root-mean-squared temporal resolution and sub-Angstrom (0.76 angstrom) spatial resolution that makes it possible to resolve the position of the nuclei within the molecule. In addition, the diffraction patterns reveal the angular distribution of the molecules, which changes from prolate (aligned) to oblate (anti-aligned) in 300 fs. Our results demonstrate a significant and promising step towards making atomically resolved movies of molecular reactions.
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