Trends in angle-resolved molecular photoelectron spectroscopy

Abstract

The field of angle-resolved molecular photoelectron spectroscopy is reviewed, with emphasis on foundations and most recent applications in different regimes of light–matter interaction. The basic formalism underlying one-photon electron angular distributions is presented, from the primary molecular frame (MF) photoemission i.e. emission from fully oriented molecules to laboratory frame (LF) observables produced from randomly oriented targets, extensions to multiphoton and strong field processes being briefly described, followed by a survey of current quantum mechanical computational approaches. The description of experimental developments is focused on the advancements in two major instrumentation fields for angle-resolved PES of molecules in the last two decades, namely charged-particle imaging spectrometers and adiabatically or impulsively laser-induced molecular alignment, together with their interplay with the remarkable characteristics achieved nowadays by the ionizing light sources and the challenging control of complex molecules in the gas phase. Aspects and applications of LF angular observables from unoriented targets are presented, with contemporary applications, especially as probes of the target electronic structure, including higher angular observables, in particular photoelectron circular dichroism (PECD) from chiral molecules, which is confirmed as a powerful chiral technique, and higher terms arising from multiphoton or non-dipole terms. Molecular frame photoelectron angular distributions (MFPADs), which stand out as the most complete observables of molecular photoionization stereodynamics in different excitation regimes, now broadly extended to characterize molecular structure and dynamics, are then discussed stemming from fully oriented molecules tackled by electron–ion momentum coincidence techniques, or from laser aligned samples. Finally, novel developments and challenging perspectives, notably the implementation of PAD in time-resolved schemes at ultrashort time scales, high energy, and high intensity regimes are drawn.