The requirement of high space-time resolution and brightness is a great challenge for imaging atomic motion and making molecular movies. Important breakthroughs in ultrabright tabletop laser, x-ray and electron sources have enabled the direct imaging of evolving molecular structures in chemical processes. And recent experimental advances in preparing ultrafast laser and electron pulses equipped molecular imaging with femtosecond time resolution. This Perspectives present an overview of versatile imaging methods of molecular dynamics. High-order harmonic generation imaging and photoelectron diffraction imaging are based on laser-induced ionization and rescattering processes. Coulomb explosion imaging retrieves molecular structural information by detecting the momentum vectors of fragmented ions. Diffraction imaging encodes molecular structural and electronic information in reciprocal space. We also present various applications of these ultrafast imaging methods in resolving laser-induced nuclear and electronic dynamics.
Generation of 480 nm picosecond pulses for ultrafast excitation of Rydberg atoms
Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences（国立自然科学研究所分子科学研究所）；SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies)（综合研究大学院大学）
