Argonne scientists use lasers to align molecules

"A method for structure determination at atomic resolution without the need to crystallize would be revolutionary."

Young and her team have successfully aligned molecules using a laser, probed the aligned ensemble with x-rays and shown theoretically that the technique could be used for x-ray imaging (See E. R. Peterson et al., Applied Physics Letters 92, 094106 (2008)), but they require an proposed upgrade to the Advanced Photon Source facility located at Argonne before x-ray diffraction can be done experimentally.

Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

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