Freiburg 2024 – scientific programme

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SYCE: Symposium Coulomb Explosion Imaging

SYCE 1: Coulomb-Explosion Imaging

SYCE 1.2: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 11:30–12:00, Paulussaal

X-ray induced Coulomb explosion imaging with channel-selectivity — •Rebecca Boll — European XFEL, Schenefeld, Germany

The short and intense X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers are an exquisite tool for Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) [1-3]. Snapshot images of the complete structure of complex molecules, including all hydrogens, can be captured. The rapid charge-up leads to a violent Coulomb explosion that preserves the information about the molecular structure at the instant of ionization. This allows studying processes such as the influence of transient resonances [4], intramolecular charge rearrangement [1] and molecular fragmentation [3].

Moreover, the multidimensionality of CEI can allow to specifically investigate certain aspects of molecular structural dynamics. We recently demonstrated how X-ray induced CEI can be used to trace a molecular elimination reaction, a minority reaction channel that involves the breaking of two molecular bonds and the formation of a new one [5]. Simultaneously, we mapped light-induced bending vibrations of a bound molecular wave packet, disentangled different dissociation pathways, and directly imaged correlated dynamics leading to ejection of a newly formed molecular fragment.

[1] R. Boll et al., Nat. Phys. 18, 423 (2022)

[2] X. Li et al., Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 013029 (2022)

[3] T. Jahnke et al., Phys. Rev. X 11, 041044 (2021)

[4] X. Li et al., Phys. Rev. A 105, 053102 (2022)

[5] X. Li et al., in preparation (2023)

Keywords: Coulomb explosion imaging; Free-electron lasers; Molecular dynamics; Photochemistry; Pump-probe experiments