Imaging the ring opening reaction of 1,3-cyclohexadiene with MeV ultrafast electron diffraction

¹ Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, USA
² SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, USA
³ Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, USA
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, UK
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA
⁶ Institut filr Physik und Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
⁷ School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
⁸ Department of Chemistry, Brown University, Providence, USA

^* Corresponding author: thomas.wolf@stanford.edu

Published online: 16 April 2019

Abstract

We resolve the structural dynamics of the ultrafast photoinduced ring opening reaction of 1,3-cyclohexadiene in space and time employing megaelectronvolt gas phase ultrafast electron diffraction. We, furthermore, observe coherent large amplitude motions of the photoproduct.