Visualizing the strong field–induced molecular breakup of C <sub>60</sub> via x-ray diffraction
Laser-driven dynamics in polyatomic molecules poses a complex many-body problem. Understanding intense light-matter interaction is crucial for steering intramolecular quantum dynamical processes. Here, we record time-resolved x-ray diffraction images of [Formula: see text] molecules during and after their interaction with intense near-infrared fields, giving direct access to structural changes of the molecules and their fragmentation in real time. Tuning the intensity of the excitation pulses, we uncover a transition from a weak-field regime of excited but stable molecules to a high-field regime dominated by Coulomb explosion. In the transition region, the molecules expand by up to 50% of their initial size within just 140 fs, with major fragmentation only setting in afterward. This work demonstrates that x-ray diffractive imaging is capable of retrieving time-resolved structural information of large molecules reshaped by intense laser fields. Laser-driven fragmentation is a first step toward observing molecular processes modified by laser fields of increasing intensity.
Authors
- Arnaud Rouzée (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2425-4027)
- Simone Techert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7549-7651)
- Yu Hang Lai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3194-8518)
- Daniel Rolles (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-3477)
- Thomas Möller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1400-6248)
- Florian Trost (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7756-286X)
- Katharina Kubiček (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8481-2249)
- Jochen Küpper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4395-9345)
- Kirsten Schnorr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5519-440X)
- Ulf Saalmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3208-8273)
- Marc J. J. Vrakking (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3249-1663)
- Yuta Ito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8494-9381)
- Sven Augustin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1283-331X)
- Ryan Coffee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2619-8823)
- Jan M. Rost (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8306-1743)
- F. Remacle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7434-5245)
- Thomas Pfeifer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5312-3747)
- T. Osipov
- Severin Meister (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5245-8377)
- Ruth A. Livingstone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8534-4037)
- Yoshiaki Kumagai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2492-4676)
- Kaz Nakahara
- G. Carini
- Christoph Bostedt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8169-8639)
- N. Berrah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3231-1164)
- Hannes Lindenblatt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1728-7979)
- Louis F. DiMauro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0171-7033)
- Kiyoshi Ueda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8051-8966)
- Ilme Schlichting (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-7496)
- Philip Hart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4569-3926)
- Gaurav Pandey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0205-5297)
- Manuel Cardosa-Gutierrez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6830-7397)
- C. P. Schulz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5073-254X)
- Razib Obaid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1759-4752)
- D. Ray
- Julian Zimmermann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4784-1013)
- R. Moshammer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3666-4904)
- André Al Haddad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2575-8200)
- Georg Schmid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2243-9087)
- R. Schmidt
- Cosmin I. Blaga
- J. Ullrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0758-4588)
- Koji Motomura
Institutions
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (DE)
- University of Connecticut (US)
- University of Liège (BE)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Kansas State University (US)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)
- Tohoku University (JP)
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (CH)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Max Planck Institute for Medical Research (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (DE)
- Max-Born-Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (DE)
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- Technische Universität Berlin (DE)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-11-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adz1900
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00