Interference effects in Compton scattering of keV photons at H 2+ : a nonrelativistic analytical approach

Abstract

In this paper we study interference effects in Compton scattering at molecule by keV photons. As a test case we investigate the molecular system H 2+ at the equilibrium internuclear distance and in the dissociative channel. The initial molecular wavefunction is described as a linear combination of atomic orbitals centered on each nucleus. The final continuum state is a two-centre continuum Coulomb wavefunction. Using these approximations, we obtain an analytical form for the Compton scattering fully differential cross section. We investigate the molecular effects at various internuclear distance for an incident photon energy close to 2.1 keV. The relative contribution of the A⋅P and A 2 coupling terms in the Compton scattering magnitude is discussed (where P is the electron momentum operator and A the vector potential of the field). We focus on Cohen-Fano type interference effects, as the ones observed in the photoionization of molecules.