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Probing the structure of cyclic hydrocarbon molecules with X-ray-induced Coulomb explosion imaging

Fuente: arXiv

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Hauptverfasser:	Borne, Kurtis D., Boll, Rebecca, Baumann, Thomas M., Bhattacharyya, Surjendu, Centurion, Martin, Chen, Keyu, Erk, Benjamin, De Fanis, Alberto, Forbes, Ruaridh, Ilchen, Markus, Kukk, Edwin, Lam, Huynh V. S., Li, Xiang, Ma, Lingyu, Mazza, Tommaso, Meyer, Michael, Mullins, Terence, Nunes, J. Pedro F., Odate, Asami, Pathak, Shashank, Rivas, Daniel, Schmidt, Philipp, Trinter, Florian, Usenko, Sergey, Venkatachalam, Anbu S., Wang, Enliang, Weber, Peter M., Jahnke, Till, Rudenko, Artem, Rolles, Daniel
Format:	Preprint
Veröffentlicht:	2026
Schlagworte:	Chemical Physics
Online-Zugang:	Acceder al recurso
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_version_	1866917247031705600
author	Borne, Kurtis D. Boll, Rebecca Baumann, Thomas M. Bhattacharyya, Surjendu Centurion, Martin Chen, Keyu Erk, Benjamin De Fanis, Alberto Forbes, Ruaridh Ilchen, Markus Kukk, Edwin Lam, Huynh V. S. Li, Xiang Ma, Lingyu Mazza, Tommaso Meyer, Michael Mullins, Terence Nunes, J. Pedro F. Odate, Asami Pathak, Shashank Rivas, Daniel Schmidt, Philipp Trinter, Florian Usenko, Sergey Venkatachalam, Anbu S. Wang, Enliang Weber, Peter M. Jahnke, Till Rudenko, Artem Rolles, Daniel
author_facet	Borne, Kurtis D. Boll, Rebecca Baumann, Thomas M. Bhattacharyya, Surjendu Centurion, Martin Chen, Keyu Erk, Benjamin De Fanis, Alberto Forbes, Ruaridh Ilchen, Markus Kukk, Edwin Lam, Huynh V. S. Li, Xiang Ma, Lingyu Mazza, Tommaso Meyer, Michael Mullins, Terence Nunes, J. Pedro F. Odate, Asami Pathak, Shashank Rivas, Daniel Schmidt, Philipp Trinter, Florian Usenko, Sergey Venkatachalam, Anbu S. Wang, Enliang Weber, Peter M. Jahnke, Till Rudenko, Artem Rolles, Daniel
contents	Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) is a powerful experimental technique that maps a molecule's geometric structure onto the momenta of ionic molecular fragments produced by rapid multiple ionization. Here, we apply CEI induced by pulses from an X-ray free-electron laser in order to image and distinguish complex hydrocarbon isomers with the chemical formula C7H8: toluene, cycloheptatriene, and 1,6-heptadiyne. The measured fragment-ion momentum distributions show discernible differences between the three isomers and provide signatures of specific carbon and hydrogen sites in the molecule. In contrast to previous work, we demonstrate that distinct 'marker atoms' are not strictly required for constructing a meaningful molecular frame of reference for the interpretation of the momentum-space data. Our work paves the way for tracking the ultrafast motion of nuclei during isomerization reactions in pure hydrocarbons.
format	Preprint
id	arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_04149
institution	arXiv
publishDate	2026
record_format	arxiv
spellingShingle	Probing the structure of cyclic hydrocarbon molecules with X-ray-induced Coulomb explosion imaging Borne, Kurtis D. Boll, Rebecca Baumann, Thomas M. Bhattacharyya, Surjendu Centurion, Martin Chen, Keyu Erk, Benjamin De Fanis, Alberto Forbes, Ruaridh Ilchen, Markus Kukk, Edwin Lam, Huynh V. S. Li, Xiang Ma, Lingyu Mazza, Tommaso Meyer, Michael Mullins, Terence Nunes, J. Pedro F. Odate, Asami Pathak, Shashank Rivas, Daniel Schmidt, Philipp Trinter, Florian Usenko, Sergey Venkatachalam, Anbu S. Wang, Enliang Weber, Peter M. Jahnke, Till Rudenko, Artem Rolles, Daniel Chemical Physics Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) is a powerful experimental technique that maps a molecule's geometric structure onto the momenta of ionic molecular fragments produced by rapid multiple ionization. Here, we apply CEI induced by pulses from an X-ray free-electron laser in order to image and distinguish complex hydrocarbon isomers with the chemical formula C7H8: toluene, cycloheptatriene, and 1,6-heptadiyne. The measured fragment-ion momentum distributions show discernible differences between the three isomers and provide signatures of specific carbon and hydrogen sites in the molecule. In contrast to previous work, we demonstrate that distinct 'marker atoms' are not strictly required for constructing a meaningful molecular frame of reference for the interpretation of the momentum-space data. Our work paves the way for tracking the ultrafast motion of nuclei during isomerization reactions in pure hydrocarbons.
title	Probing the structure of cyclic hydrocarbon molecules with X-ray-induced Coulomb explosion imaging
topic	Chemical Physics
url	https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.04149