Potential Energy Surface Reconstruction and Lifetime Determination of Molecular Double-Core-Hole States in the Hard X-Ray Regime

Abstract

A combination of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering and resonant Auger spectroscopy provides complementary information on the dynamic response of resonantly excited molecules. This is exemplified for CH3I, for which we reconstruct the potential energy surface of the dissociative I 3d−2 double- core-hole state and determine its lifetime. The proposed method holds a strong potential for monitoring the hard x-ray induced electron and nuclear dynamic response of core-excited molecules containing heavy elements, where ab initio calculations of potential energy surfaces and lifetimes remain challenging.