First-principles photoemission spectroscopy and orbital tomography in molecules from koopmans-compliant functionals

The determination of spectral properties from first principles can provide powerful connections between microscopic theoretical predictions and experimental data, but requires complex electronic-structure formulations that fall outside the domain of applicability of common approaches, such as density-functional theory. We show here that Koopmans-compliant functionals, constructed to enforce piecewise linearity and the correct discontinuity derivative in energy functionals with respect to fractional occupation-i.e., with respect to charged excitations-provide molecular photoemission spectra and momentum maps of Dyson orbitals that are in excellent agreement with experimental ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy and orbital tomography data. These results highlight the role of Koopmans-compliant functionals as accurate and inexpensive quasiparticle approximations to the spectral potential.

Theoretical study of molecular vibrations in electron momentum spectroscopy experiments on furan: an analytical versus a molecular dynamical approach

The influence of thermally induced nuclear dynamics (molecular vibrations) in the initial electronic ground state on the valence orbital momentum profiles of furan has been theoretically investigated using two different approaches. The first of these approaches employs the principles of Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics, whereas the so-called harmonic analytical quantum mechanical approach resorts to an analytical decomposition of contributions arising from quantized harmonic vibrational eigenstates. In spite of their intrinsic differences, the two approaches enable consistent insights into the electron momentum distributions inferred from new measurements employing electron momentum spectroscopy and an electron impact energy of 1.2 keV. Both approaches point out in particular an appreciable influence of a few specific molecular vibrations of A1 symmetry on the 9a1 momentum profile, which can be unravelled from considerations on the symmetry characteristics of orbitals and their energy spacing.

Vibrational effects on valence electron momentum distributions of CH2F2

We report an electron momentum spectroscopy study of vibrational effects on the electron momentum distributions for the outer valence orbitals of difluoromethane (CH2F2). The symmetric noncoplanar (e,2e) experiment has been performed at an incident electron energy of 1.2 keV. Furthermore, a theoretical calculation of the electron momentum distributions of the CH2F2 molecule has been carried out with vibrational effects being involved. It is shown from comparisons between experiment and theory that it is essential to take into account influences of the CH2 asymmetric stretching and CH2 rocking vibrational modes for a proper understanding of the electron momentum distribution of the 2b1 orbital having the CH-bonding character. The results of CH2F2and additional theoretical calculations for (CH3)2O and H2CO molecules strongly suggest that vibrational effects on electron momentum distributions tend to be appreciable for non-total symmetry molecular orbitals delocalized over some equivalent CH-bond sites.