Role of nuclear dynamics in the asymmetric molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions for C 1sphotoejection from CO2

Abstract

We report the results of semiclassical calculations of the asymmetric molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions for C 1$s$ ionization of CO${}_{2}$ measured with respect to the CO${}^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{O}}^{+}$ ions produced by subsequent Auger decay, and show how the decay event can be used to probe ultrafast molecular dynamics of the transient cation. The fixed-nuclei photoionization amplitudes were constructed using variationally obtained electron--molecular-ion scattering wave functions. The amplitudes are then used in a semiclassical manner to investigate their dependence on the nuclear dynamics of the cation. The method introduced here can be used to study other core-level ionization events.