Attosecond Charge Migration in Molecules Imaged by Combined X-ray and Electron Diffraction.

Abstract

We show how ultrafast gas-phase X-ray and electron diffraction signals can be combined to generate real-space movies of charge migration dynamics in molecules. Charge migration denotes short time electronic charge redistribution upon photoexcitation of molecules where the nuclei are frozen. In this regime, we identify a mixed electronic-nuclear interference term that can be cleanly singled out. Using the ground-state nuclear structure as a reference, the phase information in this signal allows its inversion to real space and the capture of electronic charge density movies on the attosecond time scale.