@article{YangGuehrVecchioneetal.2016,
  author    = {Yang, Jie and G{\"u}hr, Markus and Vecchione, Theodore and Robinson, Matthew Scott and Li, Renkai and Hartmann, Nick and Shen, Xiaozhe and Coffee, Ryan and Corbett, Jeff and Fry, Alan and Gaffney, Kelly and Gorkhover, Tais and Hast, Carsten and Jobe, Keith and Makasyuk, Igor and Reid, Alexander and Robinson, Joseph and Vetter, Sharon and Wang, Fenglin and Weathersby, Stephen and Yoneda, Charles and Wang, Xijie and Centurion, Martin},
  title     = {Femtosecond gas phase electron diffraction with MeV electrons},
  series = {Faraday discussions},
  volume    = {194},
  journal   = {Faraday discussions},
  publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry},
  address   = {Cambridge},
  issn      = {1359-6640},
  doi       = {10.1039/c6fd00071a},
  pages     = {563 -- 581},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {We present results on ultrafast gas electron diffraction (UGED) experiments with femtosecond resolution using the MeV electron gun at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. UGED is a promising method to investigate molecular dynamics in the gas phase because electron pulses can probe the structure with a high spatial resolution. Until recently, however, it was not possible for UGED to reach the relevant timescale for the motion of the nuclei during a molecular reaction. Using MeV electron pulses has allowed us to overcome the main challenges in reaching femtosecond resolution, namely delivering short electron pulses on a gas target, overcoming the effect of velocity mismatch between pump laser pulses and the probe electron pulses, and maintaining a low timing jitter. At electron kinetic energies above 3 MeV, the velocity mismatch between laser and electron pulses becomes negligible. The relativistic electrons are also less susceptible to temporal broadening due to the Coulomb force. One of the challenges of diffraction with relativistic electrons is that the small de Broglie wavelength results in very small diffraction angles. In this paper we describe the new setup and its characterization, including capturing static diffraction patterns of molecules in the gas phase, finding time-zero with sub-picosecond accuracy and first time-resolved diffraction experiments. The new device can achieve a temporal resolution of 100 fs root-mean-square, and sub-angstrom spatial resolution. The collimation of the beam is sufficient to measure the diffraction pattern, and the transverse coherence is on the order of 2 nm. Currently, the temporal resolution is limited both by the pulse duration of the electron pulse on target and by the timing jitter, while the spatial resolution is limited by the average electron beam current and the signal-to-noise ratio of the detection system. We also discuss plans for improving both the temporal resolution and the spatial resolution.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{YangGuehrVecchioneetal.2016,
  author    = {Yang, Jie and G{\"u}hr, Markus and Vecchione, Theodore and Robinson, Matthew Scott and Li, Renkai and Hartmann, Nick and Shen, Xiaozhe and Coffee, Ryan and Corbett, Jeff and Fry, Alan and Gaffney, Kelly and Gorkhover, Tais and Hast, Carsten and Jobe, Keith and Makasyuk, Igor and Reid, Alexander and Robinson, Joseph and Vetter, Sharon and Wang, Fenglin and Weathersby, Stephen and Yoneda, Charles and Centurion, Martin and Wang, Xijie},
  title     = {Diffractive imaging of a rotational wavepacket in nitrogen molecules with femtosecond megaelectronvolt electron pulses},
  series = {Nature Communications},
  volume    = {7},
  journal   = {Nature Communications},
  publisher = {Nature Publ. Group},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2041-1723},
  doi       = {10.1038/ncomms11232},
  pages     = {9},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {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.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{JayNorellEckertetal.2018,
  author    = {Jay, Raphael M. and Norell, Jesper and Eckert, Sebastian and Hantschmann, Markus and Beye, Martin and Kennedy, Brian and Quevedo, Wilson and Schlotter, William F. and Dakovski, Georgi L. and Minitti, Michael P. and Hoffmann, Matthias C. and Mitra, Ankush and Moeller, Stefan P. and Nordlund, Dennis and Zhang, Wenkai and Liang, Huiyang W. and Kunnus, Kristian and Kubicek, Katharina and Techert, Simone A. and Lundberg, Marcus and Wernet, Philippe and Gaffney, Kelly and Odelius, Michael and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander},
  title     = {Disentangling Transient Charge Density and Metal-Ligand Covalency in Photoexcited Ferricyanide with Femtosecond Resonant Inelastic Soft X-ray Scattering},
  series = {The journal of physical chemistry letters},
  volume    = {9},
  journal   = {The journal of physical chemistry letters},
  number    = {12},
  publisher = {American Chemical Society},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {1948-7185},
  doi       = {10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b01429},
  pages     = {3538 -- 3543},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Soft X-ray spectroscopies are ideal probes of the local valence electronic structure of photocatalytically active metal sites. Here, we apply the selectivity of time resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at the iron L-edge to the transient charge distribution of an optically excited charge-transfer state in aqueous ferricyanide. Through comparison to steady-state spectra and quantum chemical calculations, the coupled effects of valence-shell closing and ligand-hole creation are experimentally and theoretically disentangled and described in terms of orbital occupancy, metal-ligand covalency, and ligand field splitting, thereby extending established steady-state concepts to the excited-state domain. pi-Back-donation is found to be mainly determined by the metal site occupation, whereas the ligand hole instead influences sigma-donation. Our results demonstrate how ultrafast resonant inelastic X-ray scattering can help characterize local charge distributions around catalytic metal centers in short-lived charge-transfer excited states, as a step toward future rationalization and tailoring of photocatalytic capabilities of transition-metal complexes.},
  language  = {en}
}