Single photon-induced symmetry breaking of H2 dissociation.
Science
; 315(5812): 629-33, 2007 Feb 02.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-17272717
ABSTRACT
H2, the smallest and most abundant molecule in the universe, has a perfectly symmetric ground state. What does it take to break this symmetry? We found that the inversion symmetry can be broken by absorption of a linearly polarized photon, which itself has inversion symmetry. In particular, the emission of a photoelectron with subsequent dissociation of the remaining H+2 fragment shows no symmetry with respect to the ionic H+ and neutral H atomic fragments. This lack of symmetry results from the entanglement between symmetric and antisymmetric H+2 states that is caused by autoionization. The mechanisms behind this symmetry breaking are general for all molecules.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Science
Ano de publicação:
2007
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Espanha