Observation of enhanced chiral asymmetries in the inner-shell photoionization of uniaxially oriented methyloxirane enantiomers

Most large molecules are chiral in their structure: they exist as two enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other. Whereas the rovibronic sublevels of two enantiomers are almost identical, it turns out that the photoelectric effect is sensitive to the absolute configuration of the ionized enantiomer - an effect termed Photoelectron Circular Dichroism (PECD). Our comprehensive study demonstrates that the origin of PECD can be found in the molecular frame electron emission pattern connecting PECD to other fundamental photophysical effects as the circular dichroism in angular distributions (CDAD). Accordingly, orienting a chiral molecule in space enhances the PECD by a factor of about 10

Rearrangement of electron shells and interchannel interaction in the K photoabsorption of Ne

A detailed theoretical analysis of the 1s photoionization of neon is presented. It is found that the most significant many-electron correlation in computing photoionization of inner shells is the rearrangement of the outer shells caused by the inner vacancy. Further noticeable effects are: (i) the polarization of the ion core by the outgoing photoelectron and (ii) the coherent effect of double excitation/ionization. The core polarization increases the photoionization cross section by about 10% at the 1s threshold, and the coherent excitation results in further increases by about 5%. Incoherent excitation of the satellite channel leads to an additional 10% increase in the photoabsorption cross section in the double-ionization threshold region

Optical Fluorescence Detected from X-ray Irradiated Liquid Water

Despite its importance, the structure anddynamics of liquid water are still poorly understood in manyapsects. Here, we report on the observation of opticalfluorescence upon soft X-ray irradiation of liquid water.Detection of spectrally resolved fluorescence was achieved bya combination of the liquid microjet technique and fluorescencespectroscopy. We observe a genuine liquid-phase fluorescencemanifested by a broad emission band in the 170−340 nm (4−7 eV) photon wavelength range. In addition, another narroweremission near 300 nm can be assigned to the fluorescence ofOH (A state) in the gas phase, the emitting species beingformed by Auger electrons escaping from liquid water. We arguethat the newly observed broad-band emission of liquid water isrelevant in search of extraterrestrial life, and we also envision the observed electron-ejection mechanism to find application forexploring solutes at liquid−vapor interfaces