Molecular Auger decay rates from complex-variable coupled-cluster theory

The emission of an Auger electron is the predominant relaxation mechanism of core-vacant states in molecules composed of light nuclei. In this non-radiative decay process, one valence electron fills the core vacancy, while a second valence electron is emitted into the ionization continuum. Because o...

Celý popis

Uloženo v:
Podrobná bibliografie
Vydáno v:The Journal of chemical physics Ročník 156; číslo 11; s. 114117
Hlavní autoři: Matz, Florian, Jagau, Thomas-C
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: 21.03.2022
ISSN:1089-7690, 1089-7690
On-line přístup:Zjistit podrobnosti o přístupu
Tagy: Přidat tag
Žádné tagy, Buďte první, kdo vytvoří štítek k tomuto záznamu!
Popis
Shrnutí:The emission of an Auger electron is the predominant relaxation mechanism of core-vacant states in molecules composed of light nuclei. In this non-radiative decay process, one valence electron fills the core vacancy, while a second valence electron is emitted into the ionization continuum. Because of this coupling to the continuum, core-vacant states represent electronic resonances that can be tackled with standard quantum-chemical methods only if they are approximated as bound states, meaning that Auger decay is neglected. Here, we present an approach to compute Auger decay rates of core-vacant states from coupled-cluster and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster wave functions combined with complex scaling of the Hamiltonian or, alternatively, complex-scaled basis functions. Through energy decomposition analysis, we illustrate how complex-scaled methods are capable of describing the coupling to the ionization continuum without the need to model the wave function of the Auger electron explicitly. In addition, we introduce in this work several approaches for the determination of partial decay widths and Auger branching ratios from complex-scaled coupled-cluster wave functions. We demonstrate the capabilities of our new approach by computations on core-ionized states of neon, water, dinitrogen, and benzene. Coupled-cluster and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster theory in the singles and doubles approximation both deliver excellent results for total decay widths, whereas we find partial widths more straightforward to evaluate with the former method.The emission of an Auger electron is the predominant relaxation mechanism of core-vacant states in molecules composed of light nuclei. In this non-radiative decay process, one valence electron fills the core vacancy, while a second valence electron is emitted into the ionization continuum. Because of this coupling to the continuum, core-vacant states represent electronic resonances that can be tackled with standard quantum-chemical methods only if they are approximated as bound states, meaning that Auger decay is neglected. Here, we present an approach to compute Auger decay rates of core-vacant states from coupled-cluster and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster wave functions combined with complex scaling of the Hamiltonian or, alternatively, complex-scaled basis functions. Through energy decomposition analysis, we illustrate how complex-scaled methods are capable of describing the coupling to the ionization continuum without the need to model the wave function of the Auger electron explicitly. In addition, we introduce in this work several approaches for the determination of partial decay widths and Auger branching ratios from complex-scaled coupled-cluster wave functions. We demonstrate the capabilities of our new approach by computations on core-ionized states of neon, water, dinitrogen, and benzene. Coupled-cluster and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster theory in the singles and doubles approximation both deliver excellent results for total decay widths, whereas we find partial widths more straightforward to evaluate with the former method.
Bibliografie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1089-7690
1089-7690
DOI:10.1063/5.0075646