Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Yang, Jie
• Zhu, Xiaolei
• F Nunes, J Pedro
• Yu, Jimmy K
• Parrish, Robert M
• Wolf, Thomas J A
• Centurion, Martin
• Gühr, Markus
• Li, Renkai
• Liu, Yusong
• Moore, Bryan
• Niebuhr, Mario
• Park, Suji
• Shen, Xiaozhe
• Weathersby, Stephen
• Weinacht, Thomas
• Martinez, Todd J
• Wang, Xijie

Titel

Simultaneous observation of nuclear and electronic dynamics by ultrafast electron diffraction

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2020-05, Vol.368 (6493), p.885-889

Ort / Verlag

United States: The American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Simultaneous observation of nuclear and electronic motion is crucial for a complete understanding of molecular dynamics in excited electronic states. It is challenging for a single experiment to independently follow both electronic and nuclear dynamics at the same time. Here we show that ultrafast electron diffraction can be used to simultaneously record both electronic and nuclear dynamics in isolated pyridine molecules, naturally disentangling the two components. Electronic state changes (S →S internal conversion) were reflected by a strong transient signal in small-angle inelastic scattering, and nuclear structural changes (ring puckering) were monitored by large-angle elastic diffraction. Supported by ab initio nonadiabatic molecular dynamics and diffraction simulations, our experiment provides a clear view of the interplay between electronic and nuclear dynamics of the photoexcited pyridine molecule.