Ultrafast atomically-resolved movies of complex molecules captured with femtosecond electron diffraction

The conversion of light into mechanical and chemical energy, at the level of single molecules, drives many processes in nature such as vision and photosynthesis, and is important for solar energy conversion and storage applications. These changes take place at the atomic level, on femtosecond timescales. We use ultrafast electron diffraction, which probes changes in molecular structure with atomic (sub-Angstrom) resolution in space and femtosecond resolution in time. Here we show that we can retrieve, with a high level of detail, the structural dynamics that take place after photoexcitation of complex molecules.