O 1s excitation and ionization processes in the CO2 molecule studied via detection of low-energy fluorescence emission

Oxygen 1s excitation and ionization processes in the CO2 molecule have been studied with dispersed and non-dispersed fluorescence spectroscopy as well as with the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photon?photoion coincidence technique. The intensity of the neutral O emission line at 845 nm shows particular sensitivity to core-to-Rydberg excitations and core?valence double excitations, while shape resonances are suppressed. In contrast, the partial fluorescence yield in the wavelength window 300?650 nm and the excitation functions of selected O+ and C+ emission lines in the wavelength range 400?500 nm display all of the absorption features. The relative intensity of ionic emission in the visible range increases towards higher photon energies, which is attributed to O 1s shake-off photoionization. VUV photon?photoion coincidence spectra reveal major contributions from the C+ and O+ ions and a minor contribution from C2+. No conclusive changes in the intensity ratios among the different ions are observed above the O 1s threshold. The line shape of the VUV?O+ coincidence peak in the mass spectrum carries some information on the initial core excitatio

Observation of electron transfer mediated decay in aqueous solution

Photoionization is at the heart of X ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS , which gives access to important information on a sample s local chemical environment. Local and non local electronic decay after photoionization in which the refilling of core holes results in electron emission from either the initially ionized species or a neighbour, respectively have been well studied. However, electron transfer mediated decay ETMD , which involves the refilling of a core hole by an electron from a neighbouring species, has not yet been observed in condensed phase. Here we report the experimental observation of ETMD in an aqueous LiCl solution by detecting characteristic secondary low energy electrons using liquid microjet soft XPS. Experimental results are interpreted using molecular dynamics and high level ab initio calculations. We show that both solvent molecules and counterions participate in the ETMD processes, and different ion associations have distinctive spectral fingerprints. Furthermore, ETMD spectra are sensitive to coordination numbers, ion solvent distances and solvent arrangemen

A comprehensive study of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in argon dimers: Extracting R-dependent absolute decay rates from the experiment

In this work we present a comprehensive and detailed study of Interatomic Coulombic Decay (ICD) occurring after irradiating argon dimers with XUV-synchrotron radiation. A manifold of different decay channels is observed and the corresponding initial and final states are assigned. Additionally, the effect of nuclear dynamics on the ICD electron spectrum is examined for one specific decay channel. The internuclear distance-dependent width Γ(R) of the decay is obtained from the measured kinetic energy release distribution of the ions employing a classical nuclear dynamics model

Solvent dependence of the electronic structure of I- and I 3 -

We present synchrotron-based I4d photoelectron spectroscopy experiments of solutions from LiI and LiI3 in water, ethanol, and acetonitrile. The experimentally determined solvent-induced binding energy shifts (SIBES) for the monatomic I- anion are compared to predictions from simple Born theory, PCM calculations, as well as multiconfigurational quantum chemical spectral calculations from geometries obtained through molecular dynamics of solvated clusters. We show that the SIBES for I- explicitly depend on the details of the hydrogen bonding configurations of the solvent to the I - and that static continuum models such as the Born model cannot capture the trends in the SIBES observed both in experiments and in higher-level calculations. To extend the discussion to more complex polyatomic anions, we also performed experiments on I3- and I-/I3 - mixtures in different solvents and the results are analyzed in the perspective of SIBES. The experimental SIBES values indicate that the solvation effects even for such similar anions as I- and I3 - can be rather different in nature. © 2014 American Chemical Society

Core-level electron spectroscopy on the sodium dimer Na 2p level

The lifetime broadening and molecular field splitting of the sodium dimer 2p core level is studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and by Auger electron spectroscopy. The lifetime of the Na 2p core hole has been determined to be 15 +/- 8 fs, much shorter than what has previously been reported for solid sodium. The molecular field splitting of this core level has been determined to be 42 +/- 10 meV. The Auger measurements have experimentally confirmed that the sodium dimer is a good example of when the Coulomb explosion mechanism determines the spectral shape

The role of molecular polarity in cluster local structure studied by photoelectron spectroscopy

We have studied the spatial structure and electronic levels of clusters of the molecule CH3Br to investigate the effects of molecular polarity on these properties. Analysis of the core level photoclectron spectra of initially neutral CH3Br clusters shows that the C 1 s(-1) state has a 30% larger binding energy shift between free molecules and clusters than the Br 3d(-1) state. This difference is attributed to an anti-parallel packing of the molecules induced by the polar character of bromomethane. The results obtained from the analysis of valence cluster spectra also support the proposed structure. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved