Impact of Attosecond X-ray Pulses on Electronic Damage Suppression in X-ray Diffraction

Visualization of valence electrons through X-ray diffraction is a well-established technique. However, as ultrafast electronic excitation occurs on a timescale comparable to the XFEL pulse duration, it becomes difficult to determine pristine electron density distributions from XFEL diffraction data. We propose using attosecond pulses at high photon energies for conducting X-ray charge-density studies, to achieve a better signal and lower target damage during the pulse.