Probing ultrafast electronic and molecular dynamics with free-electron lasers

Molecular dynamics is an active area of research, focusing on revealing fundamental information on molecular structures and photon-molecule interaction and with broad impacts in chemical and biological sciences. Experimental investigation of molecular dynamics has been advanced by the development of new light sources and techniques, deepening our understanding of natural processes and enabling possible control and modification of chemical and biomolecular processes. Free-electron lasers (FELs) deliver unprecedented intense and short photon pulses in the vacuum ultraviolet and x-ray spectral ranges, opening a new era for the study of electronic and nuclear dynamics in molecules. This review focuses on recent molecular dynamics investigations using FELs. We present recent work concerning dynamics of molecular interaction with FELs using an intrinsic clock within a single x-ray pulse as well as using an external clock in a pump-probe scheme. We review the latest developments on correlated and coincident spectroscopy in FEL-based research and recent results revealing photo-induced interaction dynamics using these techniques. We also describe new instrumentations to conduct x-ray pump-x-ray probe experiments with spectroscopy and imaging detectors.