Valence ionization of water clusters: from isolated molecules to bulk.

The valence photoelectron spectra of water clusters are studied experimentally and by ab initio calculations. The size dependence of the vertical ionization energy of the outermost orbitals is explicitly shown. A shift toward lower values is observed. For small cluster sizes, it can be rationalized as an effect of charge delocalization as the system is becoming more extended. Ionization energies of larger clusters decrease linearly with inverse cluster radius and asymptotically approach the value of liquid water. In the calculations, we apply a reflection principle approach based on sampling a quantum mechanical distribution of different initial-state geometries to clusters. An excellent agreement of peak shapes calculated thus with measured ones is shown. Using additional polarization fields, the extension of this approach to the photoionization of liquid water is demonstrated. Upon deuteration of the water clusters, we experimentally and theoretically find slightly larger absolute values of the vertical ionization energies. We suggest that the measurement of electron ionization energies can be used as an alternative means to characterize water cluster sizes, which can complement the use of scaling laws.

Giant chiral asymmetry in the C 1s core level photoemission from randomly oriented fenchone enantiomers.

Measurements made with a dilute, non-oriented, gas-phase sample of a selected fenchone enantiomer using circularly polarized synchrotron radiation demonstrate huge chiral asymmetries, approaching 20%, in the angular distribution of photoelectrons ejected from carbonyl C 1s core orbitals. This asymmetry in the forward-backward scattering of electrons along the direction of the incident soft X-ray radiation reverses when either the enantiomer or the left-right handedness of the light polarization is exchanged. Calculations are provided that model and explain the resulting photoelectron circular dichroism with quantitative accuracy up to approximately 7 eV above threshold. A discrepancy at higher energies is discussed in the light of a comparison with the closely related terpene, camphor. The photoelectron dichroism spectrum can be used to identify the absolute chiral configuration, and it is more effective at distinguishing the similar camphor and fenchone molecules than the corresponding core photoelectron spectrum.

Interface identification by non-local autoionization transitions.

We use an autoionization process that involves ultrafast energy transfer to neighbouring sites to characterize the formation of NeAr van der Waals bonds in clusters formed by a coexpansion of both gases. This autoionization process, the so-called interatomic or intermolecular coulombic decay (ICD), is ubiquitous in weakly bonded systems. The energy of the electron being emitted in the ICD process is shown to be characteristic of the two neighbouring entities and is therefore suggested as a new means for structural investigation, such as interface identification, of weakly bonded complexes.

Circular dichroism in the angle-resolved C 1s photoemission spectra of gas-phase carvone enantiomers.

The inner-shell C 1s photoionization of randomly oriented molecules of the chiral compound carvone has been investigated using circularly polarized synchrotron radiation up to 30 eV above threshold. Binding energies of the C=O and CH2= carbon 1s orbitals were determined to be 292.8+/-0.2 and 289.8+/-0.2 eV, respectively. The remaining C-H C 1s levels substantially overlap under an intense central peak centered at 290.5+/-0.2 eV. The angle-resolved photoemission from the carbonyl carbon C=O core orbital in pure carvone enantiomers shows a pronounced circular dichroism of approximately 6% at the magic angle of 54.7 degrees to the light beam propagation direction. This corresponds to an expected 0 degrees -180 degrees forward-backward electron emission asymmetry of approximately 10%. On changing between the R and S enantiomers of carvone the sense or sign of the asymmetry and associated dichroism effectively reverses. The observed circular dichroism, and its energy dependence, is well accounted for by calculations performed in the pure electric dipole approximation.