Vibrationally resolved core-photoelectron spectroscopy as an infinite-slit interferometry

During a molecular vibration, an atom changes continuously its position. Just as the emitted photoelectron waves, the electromagnetic waves absorbed by the atom in the different positions are strictly coherent and have different well-defined phases. These phases depend on the relation between the instantaneous internuclear distance and the photoelectron, respectively, photon wavelengths. We predict that the interference of these coherent waves strongly influences the vibrational profile of the photoelectron spectra of core electrons in a molecule. This effect increases with increasing x-ray photon frequency and results in a deformation and broadening of the vibrational profile. In the case of surface adsorbed molecules, the vibrational profile depends strongly on the direction of the photoelectron ejection and photon momentum, and the orientational sensitivity of a vibrational profile can even be used as a tool to define the orientation of adsorbed molecules.