Vibrationally Resolved<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>K</mml:mi></mml:math>-shell Photoionization of CO with Circularly Polarized Light

Abstract

Diffraction of a low energy (<4 eV) carbon-K-photoelectron wave that is created inside a CO molecule by absorption of a circularly polarized photon is investigated. The measurements resolve the vibrational states of the K-shell ionized CO+ molecule and display the photoelectron diffraction patterns in the molecular frame. These show significant variation for the different vibrational states. This effect is stronger than predicted by state-of-the-art theory. As this study is performed close to C-K-threshold and, therefore, far below the molecule's sigma-shape resonance, this surprisingly strong effect is not related to that resonance phenomenon.