High-energy molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions: a molecular bond-length ruler

I Vela-Peréz; F Ota; A Mhamdi; Y Tamura; J Rist; N Melzer; S Uerken; G Nalin; N Anders; D You; M Kircher; C Janke; M Waitz; F Trinter; R Guillemin; M N Piancastelli; M Simon; V T Davis; J B Williams; R Dörner; K Hatada; K Yamazaki; K Fehre; Ph V Demekhin; K Ueda; M S Schöffler; T Jahnke

doi:10.1039/d2cp05942h

High-energy molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions: a molecular bond-length ruler

Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2023 May 17;25(19):13784-13791. doi: 10.1039/d2cp05942h.

Authors

I Vela-Peréz¹, F Ota², A Mhamdi³, Y Tamura², J Rist¹, N Melzer¹, S Uerken¹, G Nalin¹, N Anders¹, D You⁴, M Kircher¹, C Janke¹, M Waitz¹, F Trinter^{5

6}, R Guillemin⁷, M N Piancastelli⁷, M Simon⁷, V T Davis⁸, J B Williams⁸, R Dörner¹, K Hatada², K Yamazaki⁹, K Fehre¹, Ph V Demekhin³, K Ueda^{4

10}, M S Schöffler¹, T Jahnke¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Institut für Kernphysik, Goethe-Universität, Max-von-Laue-Straße 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
² Department of Physics, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-8555, Gofuku 3190, Japan.
³ Institut für Physik und CINSaT, Universität Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Straße 40, 34132 Kassel, Germany. [email protected].
⁴ Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan.
⁵ Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
⁶ Molecular Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany. [email protected].
⁷ Sorbonne Université CNRS, Laboratoire de Chimie Physique-Matiere et Rayonnement, LCPMR, F-75005, Paris, France.
⁸ Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA.
⁹ RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.
¹⁰ Department of Chemistry, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki Aza-Aoba, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
¹¹ European XFEL, Holzkoppel 4, 22869 Schenefeld, Germany. [email protected].

PMID: 37159272
DOI: 10.1039/d2cp05942h

Abstract

We present a study on molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions (MFPADs) of small molecules using circularly polarized synchrotron light. We find that the main forward-scattering peaks of the MFPADs are slightly tilted with respect to the molecular axis. This tilt angle is directly connected to the molecular bond length by a simple, universal formula. We apply the derived formula to several examples of MFPADs of C 1s and O 1s photoelectrons of CO, which have been measured experimentally or obtained by means of ab initio modeling. In addition, we discuss the influence of the back-scattering contribution that is superimposed over the analyzed forward-scattering peak in the case of homo-nuclear diatomic molecules such as N₂.