Vibrationally Resolved K-shell Photoionization of CO with Circularly Polarized Light

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 σ-shape resonance, this surprisingly strong effect is not related to that resonance phenomenon.