Diffractive molecular orbital tomography

High harmonic generation in the interaction of femtosecond lasers with atoms and molecules opens the path to molecular orbital tomography and to probe the electronic dynamics with attosecondÅngström resolutions. Molecular orbital tomography requires both the amplitude and phase of the high harmonics. Yet the measurement of phases requires sophisticated techniques and represents formidable challenges at present. Here we report a novel scheme, called diffractive molecular orbital tomography, to retrieve the molecular orbital solely from the amplitude of high harmonics without measuring any phase information. We have applied this method to image the molecular orbitals of N2, CO2 and C2H2. The retrieved orbital is further improved by taking account the correction of Coulomb potential. The diffractive molecular orbital tomography scheme, removing the roadblock of phase measurement, significantly simplifies the molecular orbital tomography procedure and paves an efficient and robust way to the imaging of more complex molecules.