No abstract

We study the role of propagation of strong x-ray free-electron laser pulses on the Auger effect. When the system is exposed to a strong x-ray pulse the stimulated emission starts to compete with the Auger decay. As an illustration we present numerical results for Ar gas with the frequency of the incident x-ray pulse tuned in the 2p 3/2 -4s resonance. It is shown that the pulse propagation is accompanied by two channels of amplified spontaneous emission, 4s-2p 3/2 and 3s-2p 3/2 , which reshape the pulse when the system is inverted. The population inversion is quenched for longer propagation distances where lasing without inversion enhances the Stokes component. The results of simulations show that the propagation of the strong x-ray pulses affect intensively the Auger branching ratio.

Resonant soft x-ray emission spectroscopy has been applied to study the issue of symmetry breaking upon core-hole excitation in molecular oxygen. The results provide direct evidence that the inversion symmetry is not broken in the core-excited states. Furthermore, the experiments themselves demonstrate a new experimental technique of broad applicability for studies of electronic structure and excitation dynamics in free atoms and molecules.

The core-level photoelectron spectra of N2 molecules are observed at high energy resolution, resolving the 1σg and 1σu components as well as the vibrational components in the extended energy region from the threshold up to 1 keV. The σg/σu cross section ratios display modulation as a function of photoelectron momentum due to the two-centre interference, analogous to the classical Young's double-slit experiment, as predicted by Cohen and Fano a long time ago. The Cohen–Fano interference modulations display different phases depending on the vibrational excitations in the core-ionized state. Extensive ab initio calculations have been performed within the Hartree–Fock and random phase approximations in prolate spheroidal coordinates. The dependence of photoionization amplitudes on the vibrational states was taken into account using the Born–Oppenheimer approximation. The ab initio results are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The theoretical analysis allows the modulation to be connected with the onset of transitions to the states of increasing orbital angular momentum which occurs at increasing photon energies. Deviation from the Cohen–Fano formula is found for both the experimental and the ab initio results and is attributed to electron scattering by the neighbouring atom. A new formula for the interference modulation is derived within the framework of the multiple scattering technique. It differs from the classical Cohen–Fano formula by the addition of twice the scattering phase of the photoelectron by the neighbouring atom. We demonstrate that one can measure directly the scattering phase by fitting our formula to the experimental results.

No abstract

The phase diagram of water harbors controversial views on underlying structural properties of its constituting molecular moieties, its fluctuating hydrogen-bonding network, as well as pair-correlation functions. In this work, long energy-range detection of the X-ray absorption allows us to unambiguously calibrate the spectra for water gas, liquid, and ice by the experimental atomic ionization cross-section. In liquid water, we extract the mean value of 1.74 ± 2.1% donated and accepted hydrogen bonds per molecule, pointing to a continuous-distribution model. In addition, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering with unprecedented energy resolution also supports continuous distribution of molecular neighborhoods within liquid water, as do X-ray emission spectra once the femtosecond scattering duration and proton dynamics in resonant X-ray–matter interaction are taken into account. Thus, X-ray spectra of liquid water in ambient conditions can be understood without a two-structure model, whereas the occurrence of nanoscale-length correlations within the continuous distribution remains open.

By exploiting the core-excitation-induced dissociation of O2, we find that the Auger emission exhibits a Doppler-like energy shift. We show this to be a manifestation of localization of the core hole and propose that the problem of core-hole localization versus delocalization in core-hole spectroscopies may be resolved by considering the nature of the measurement.

No abstract