# Diffractive molecular orbital tomography

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel diffractive molecular orbital tomography method that reconstructs molecular orbitals solely from high harmonic amplitude data, eliminating the need for phase measurements and simplifying the imaging process.

## Contribution

The paper presents a new scheme for molecular orbital tomography that does not require phase information, enabling easier and more robust imaging of complex molecules.

## Key findings

- Successfully imaged orbitals of N₂, CO₂, and C₂H₂.
- Improved orbital images by accounting for Coulomb potential effects.
- Simplified the tomography process by removing phase measurement challenges.

## Abstract

High harmonic generation in the interaction of femtosecond lasers with atoms and molecules opens the path to molecular orbital tomography and to probe the electronic dynamics with attosecond-{\AA}ngstr\"{o}m resolutions. Molecular orbital tomography requires both the amplitude and phase of the high harmonics. Yet the measurement of phases requires sophisticated techniques and represents formidable challenges at present. Here we report a novel scheme, called diffractive molecular orbital tomography, to retrieve the molecular orbital solely from the amplitude of high harmonics without measuring any phase information. We have applied this method to image the molecular orbitals of N$_2$, CO$_2$ and C$_2$H$_2$. The retrieved orbital is further improved by taking account the correction of Coulomb potential. The diffractive molecular orbital tomography scheme, removing the roadblock of phase measurement, significantly simplifies the molecular orbital tomography procedure and paves an efficient and robust way to the imaging of more complex molecules.