Science Advances paper on electron dynamics induced by xray free electron laser pulses in crystalline C60

In a recent paper in Science Advances, a multi-institutional collaboration led by Melbourne University and including CQOS PhD student Naylyn Gaffney has reported observations of the diffraction of extremely intense, XFEL (xray free electon laser) generated 32-fs x-ray pulses by a powder sample of crystalline C60. The diffraction pattern at the highest available incident power was found to differ markedly from the diffraction pattern obtained using either third-generation synchrotron sources or XFEL sources operating at low output power and does not correspond to any known phase of crystalline C60. The data has been interpreted evidence of a long-range, coherent dynamic electronic distortion that is driven by the interaction of the periodic array of C60 molecular targets with the intense x-ray pulses.

Link to the paper: X-ray laser-induced electron dynamics observed by femtosecond diffraction from nanocrystals of Buckminsterfullerene