Küpper, JochenStern, StephanHolmegaard, LotteFilsinger, FrankRouzée, ArnaudRudenko, ArtemJohnsson, PerMartin, Andrew V.Adolph, MarcusAquila, AndrewBajt, SašaBarty, AntonBostedt, ChristophBozek, JohnCaleman, CarlCoffee, RyanCoppola, NicolaDelmas, TjarkEpp, SaschaErk, BenjaminFoucar, LutzGorkhover, TaisGumprecht, LarsHartmann, AndreasHartmann, RobertHauser, GünterHoll, PeterHömke, AndreKimmel, NilsKrasniqi, FatonKühnel, Kai-UweMaurer, JochenMesserschmidt, MarcMoshammer, RobertReich, ChristianRudek, BenediktSantra, RobinSchlichting, IlmeSchmidt, CarloSchorb, SebastianSchulz, JoachimSoltau, HeikeSpence, John C. H.Starodub, DmitriStrüder, LotharThøgersen, JanVrakking, Marc J. J.Weidenspointner, GeorgWhite, Thomas A.Wunderer, CorneliaMeijer, GerardUllrich, JoachimStapelfeldt, HenrikRolles, DanielChapman, Henry N.2023-12-072023-12-072014-02-28https://hdl.handle.net/2097/43934We report experimental results on x-ray diffraction of quantum-state-selected and strongly aligned ensembles of the prototypical asymmetric rotor molecule 2,5-diiodobenzonitrile using the Linac Coherent Light Source. The experiments demonstrate first steps toward a new approach to diffractive imaging of distinct structures of individual, isolated gas-phase molecules. We confirm several key ingredients of single molecule diffraction experiments: the abilities to detect and count individual scattered x-ray photons in single shot diffraction data, to deliver state-selected, e.g., structural-isomer-selected, ensembles of molecules to the x-ray interaction volume, and to strongly align the scattering molecules. Our approach, using ultrashort x-ray pulses, is suitable to study ultrafast dynamics of isolated molecules.© American Physical Society (APS). This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/https://web.archive.org/web/20181120135245/https://journals.aps.org/copyrightFAQ.htmlText