Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme
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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 18: Experimentelle Techniken
MO 18.5: Talk
Thursday, March 5, 2009, 11:45–12:00, VMP 6 HS-F
Coherent diffractive imaging of oriented gas-phase molecules using XFELs — •Jochen Küpper1, Gerard Meijer1, Henrik Stapelfeldt2, and Henry N. Chapman3 — 1Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG, Berlin — 2University of Aarhus, Denmark — 3Center for Free Electron Laser Science, Hamburg
Upcoming X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) promise the possibility to obtain coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) patterns from single biological objects. We propose to perform CDI experiments with XFELs using relatively small (bio)molecules, to benchmark the experimental details. Such large molecules have complex potential-energy surfaces with many local minima. They exhibit multiple stereo-isomers, even at very low temperatures.
We have developed methods to manipulate the motion of large, complex
molecules and to select quantum states.1 We have demonstrated the
spatial separation of individual conformers and improved spatial
alignment and orientation of such molecules. Such clean, well-defined
samples would allow novel experiments with complex molecules, such as,
for instance, X-ray CDI in the gas-phase using XFELs. They allow to
investigate the general feasibility of such gas-phase diffraction
experiments using XFELs, and to study radiation damage and the ideas
of diffraction-before-destruction for
high-intensity X-ray pulses.
1 Wohlfart et al. Phys. Rev. A 77, 031404(R) (2008);
Filsinger et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 133003 (2008);
Holmegaard et al. Phys. Rev. Lett., accepted, preprint at
arXiv:physics.chem-ph 0810:2307 (2008)