Laser-Induced Electron Diffraction: Inversion of Photoelectron Spectra for Molecular Orbital Imaging

TL;DR

This paper explores using Laser Induced Electron Diffraction to invert photoelectron spectra for imaging molecular orbitals, demonstrating potential for high-resolution, time-resolved orbital imaging in linear molecules.

Contribution

It extends previous LIED methods to image the HOMO-1 orbital of CO2, showing potential for sub-femtosecond, high-resolution molecular orbital imaging.

Findings

Potential to image orbitals at different internuclear distances

Achieves sub-femtosecond temporal resolution

Provides spatial resolution of a fraction of an Angstrom

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the possibility of imaging molecular orbitals from photoelectron spectra obtained via Laser Induced Electron Diffraction (LIED) in linear molecules. This is an extension of our work published recently in Physical Review A \textbf{94}, 023421 (2016) to the case of the HOMO-1 orbital of the carbon dioxide molecule. We show that such an imaging technique has the potential to image molecular orbitals at different internuclear distances in a sub-femtosecond time scale and with a resolution of a fraction of an Angstr\"om.