# Atomic-resolution imaging of carbonyl sulfide by laser-induced electron diffraction

## TL;DR

This study demonstrates atomic-resolution imaging of carbonyl sulfide molecules using laser-induced electron diffraction, achieving precise measurements of bond lengths and molecular geometry with high-energy electron detection.

## Contribution

It introduces a method combining strong-field ionization and velocity map imaging to extract molecular structure with sub-5 pm accuracy.

## Key findings

- Elastic-scattering cross section matches previous electron diffraction data.
- Bond lengths and geometry determined with better than ±5 pm precision.
- Method effectively images molecular structures at atomic resolution.

## Abstract

Measurements on the strong-field ionization of carbonyl sulfide molecules by short, intense, 2~\um wavelength laser pulses are presented from experiments where angle-resolved photoelectron distributions were recorded with a high-energy velocity map imaging spectrometer, designed to reach a maximum kinetic energy of 500~eV. The laser-field-free elastic-scattering cross section of carbonyl sulfide was extracted from the measurements and is found in good agreement with previous experiments, performed using conventional electron diffraction. By comparing our measurements to the results of calculations, based on the quantitative rescattering theory (QRS), the bond lengths and molecular geometry were extracted from the experimental differential cross sections to a precision better than $\pm5$~pm and in agreement with the known values.