title: From double-slit interference to structural information in simple hydrocarbons.
abstract: Interferences in coherent emission of photoelectrons from two equivalent atomic centers in a molecule are the microscopic analogies of the celebrated Young's double-slit experiment. By considering inner-valence shell ionization in the series of simple hydrocarbons C2H2, C2H4, and C2H6, we show that double-slit interference is widespread and has built-in quantitative information on geometry, orbital composition, and many-body effects. A theoretical and experimental study is presented over the photon energy range of 70-700 eV. A strong dependence of the oscillation period on the C-C distance is observed, which can be used to determine bond lengths between selected pairs of equivalent atoms with an accuracy of at least 0.01 Å. Furthermore, we show that the observed oscillations are directly informative of the nature and atomic composition of the inner-valence molecular orbitals and that observed ratios are quantitative measures of elusive many-body effects. The technique and analysis can be immediately extended to a large class of compounds.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie Physique-Matière et Rayonnement, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Rajesh Kumar
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Kushawaha
authors.forename: Minna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Patanen
authors.forename: Renaud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guillemin
authors.forename: Loic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Journel
authors.forename: Catalin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miron
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Maria Novella
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Piancastelli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Skates
authors.forename: Piero
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Decleva
mesh_terms: D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000737:chemistry*; D008857:Microscopy, Interference / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D017356:Synchrotrons
chemical_list: D006838:Hydrocarbons
keywords: coherent state and molecular photoemission; interference phenomena