Speaker
Description
Gas-phase ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) has become a powerful tool for capturing molecular dynamics with femtosecond temporal and atomic spatial resolutions, enabling direct observation of phenomena such as photo-dissociation, ring-opening reactions, and nuclear wavepacket motion through conical intersections. Despite significant progress, several challenges remain: temporal resolution is limited by space-charge-induced pulse broadening; background signal subtraction is complex; structural retrieval methods lack standardization and are error-prone in low-signal regimes; and stable delivery of gas-phase samples with sufficient density is technically demanding. Advances in relativistic electron sources, pulse compression, electron counting detectors, and novel data analysis methods are rapidly expanding the capabilities of gas-phase UED, enabling studies of increasingly complex systems. This talk will provide an overview of the current capabilities, highlight persistent technical challenges, and explore future directions for UED within the broader context of ultrafast science.
