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Updated: Jul 31, 2025

Photoelectron Imaging of Anions Illustrated by 310 Nm Detachment of F−
Published on: July 27, 2018
High-energy molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions: a molecular bond-length ruler
I Vela-Peréz1, F Ota2, A Mhamdi3
1Institut für Kernphysik, Goethe-Universität, Max-von-Laue-Straße 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
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.
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