TY  - JOUR
AU  - Li, Xiang
AU  - Boll, Rebecca
AU  - Vindel-Zandbergen, Patricia
AU  - González-Vázquez, Jesús
AU  - Rivas, Daniel
AU  - Bhattacharyya, Surjendu
AU  - Borne, Kurtis
AU  - Chen, Keyu
AU  - De Fanis, Alberto
AU  - Erk, Benjamin
AU  - Forbes, Ruaridh
AU  - Green, Alice
AU  - Ilchen, Markus
AU  - Kaderiya, Balram
AU  - Kukk, Edwin
AU  - Lam, Huynh
AU  - Mazza, Tommaso
AU  - Mullins, Terence
AU  - Senfftleben, Bjoern
AU  - Trinter, Florian
AU  - Usenko, Sergey
AU  - Venkatachalam, Anbu
AU  - Wang, Enliang
AU  - Cryan, James
AU  - Meyer, Michael
AU  - Jahnke, Till
AU  - Ho, Phay
AU  - Rolles, Daniel
AU  - Rudenko, Artem
TI  - Imaging a light-induced molecular elimination reaction with an X-ray free-electron laser
JO  - Nature Communications
VL  - 16
IS  - 1
SN  - 2041-1723
CY  - [London]
PB  - Springer Nature
M1  - PUBDB-2025-03713
SP  - 7006
PY  - 2025
AB  - Tracking the motion of individual atoms during chemical reactions represents a severe experimental challenge, especially if several competing reaction pathways exist or if the reaction is governed by the correlated motion of more than two molecular constituents. Here we demonstrate how ultrashort X-ray pulses combined with coincident ion imaging can be used to trace molecular iodine elimination from laser-irradiated diiodomethane (CH2I2), a reaction channel of fundamental importance but small relative yield that involves the breaking of two molecular bonds and the formation of a new one. We map bending vibrations of the bound molecule, disentangle different dissociation pathways, image the correlated motion of the iodine atoms and the methylene group leading to molecular iodine ejection, and trace the vibrational motion of the formed product. Our results provide a quantitative mechanistic picture behind previously suggested reaction mechanisms and prove that a variety of geometries are involved in the molecular bond formation. 
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-62274-z
UR  - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/636675
ER  -