Resolving Vibrations in a Polyatomic Molecule with Femtometer Precision
Abstract
We measure molecular vibrations with femtometer precision using time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy. For a demonstration, a Raman process excites the A1g mode in gas-phase SF6 molecules with an amplitude of ≈50 fm, which is probed by a time-delayed soft x-ray pulse at the sulfur L2,3-edge. Mapping the extremely small measured energy shifts to internuclear distances requires an understanding of the electronic contributions provided by a many-body ab initio simulation. Our study establishes core-level spectroscopy as a precision tool for time-dependent molecular-structure metrology.
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