Intense femtosecond lasers as well as X-ray free electron lasers provide new means to produce multiply charged molecular cations. The fragmentation processes that these high energy species undergo, termed Coulomb explosion, are utilized to determine the static molecular structures as well as to trace the molecular dynamics of ultrafast chemical reactions. This review focuses on recent advances made in studies of Coulomb explosion imaging, highlighting the use of this process to determine the static structures of complex molecules, geometric isomers, chiral molecules and molecular complexes. Briefly, we summarize the recent time-resolved studies of surface electric fields and the controversy pertaining to the contribution of Coulomb explosion to the mechanism for ablation of solid surfaces.

强大的飞秒激光器以及X射线自由电子激光器提供了产生多电荷分子阳离子的新手段。这些高能物质经历的裂解过程称为库仑爆炸，可用于确定静态分子结构以及跟踪超快化学反应的分子动力学。这篇综述着重于库仑爆炸成像研究的最新进展，重点介绍了使用该过程确定复杂分子，几何异构体，手性分子和分子复杂物的静态结构。简而言之，我们总结了表面电场的近期时间分辨研究以及与库仑爆炸对固体表面烧蚀机理的贡献有关的争议。