Simultaneous real and momentum space electron diffraction from a fullerene molecule

Abstract: Plane-wave electrons undergo momentum transfer as they scatter off a target in overlapping spherical waves. The transferred momentum leads to target structural information to be encoded in angle and energy differential scattering. For symmetric, periodic or structured targets this can engender diffraction in the electron intensity both in real (angular) and in momentum space. With the example of elastic scattering from C60 we show this simultaneous manifestation of diffraction signatures. The simulated angle-momentum diffractograms can be imaged in experiments with a two-dimensional detector and an energy-tunable electron gun. The result may inspire invention of technology to extend scopes of electron diffraction from molecules and nanostructures, open a direction of electron crystallography using the momentum-differential diffraction, and motivate an approach to control the time delay between the pump laser-pulse and the probe electron-pulse by tuning the electron impact-speed in ultrafast electron diffraction experiments.