W0083

Probing Excited Molecular States with Pulsed Electron Beams. Peter M. Weber, Job Cardoza, Seol Ryu, Richard M. Stratt, Dept. of Chemistry, Brown Univ., Providence, RI, 02912.

Ultrafast time resolved diffraction is a nascent area of research that promises snapshots of time-evolving molecular structures on a picosecond or sub-picosecond time scale. This talk describes experimental approaches, and results obtained to date. Theoretical studies were performed to simulate diffraction patterns of s-tetrazine that is prepared in specific electronically and vibrationally excited states. These studies suggest that pump-probe electron diffraction is a method to image gas phase molecular structures and motions from different sides, as is conventionally done on crystal structures.