Monica de Simone

Tautomerism in Cytosine and Uracil: A Theoretical and Experimental X-ray Absorption and Resonant Auger Study

The core level photoabsorption spectra of the nucleobases cytosine and uracil in the gas phase have been measured and the results interpreted with theoretical calculations using an ab initio Green’s function approach. A single tautomer of uracil is populated, in agreement with previous work, while three tautomers of cytosine are clearly identified, whose identity and relative populations at the temperature of the experiment were reported previously. The second-order ADC approach to polarization propagator was employed in calculations of X-ray photoabsorption energies and intensities. The theoretical spectra have been constructed as Boltzmann-factor-weighted sums of individual tautomer spectra. These theoretical spectra are in good agreement with the experimental photoabsorption results at the oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon edges. In addition we report resonant Auger spectra of the valence band of cytosine, which support previous assignments of the character of the valence band states.

Valence-band electronic structure of iron phthalocyanine : An experimental and theoretical photoelectron spectroscopy study

The electronic structure of iron phthalocyanine (FePc) in the valence region was examined within a joint theoretical-experimental collaboration. Particular emphasis was placed on the determination of the energy position of the Fe 3d levels in proximity of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). Photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) measurements were performed on FePc in gas phase at several photon energies in the interval between 21 and 150 eV. Significant variations of the relative intensities were observed, indicating a different elemental and atomic orbital composition of the highest lying spectral features. The electronic structure of a single FePc molecule was first computed by quantum chemical calculations by means of density functional theory (DFT). The hybrid Becke 3-parameter, Lee, Yang and Parr (B3LYP) functional and the semilocal 1996 functional of Perdew, Burke and Ernzerhof (PBE) of the generalized gradient approximation (GGA-)type, exchange-correlation functionals were used. The DFT/B3LYP calculations find that the HOMO is a doubly occupied π-type orbital formed by the carbon 2p electrons, and the HOMO-1 is a mixing of carbon 2p and iron 3d electrons. In contrast, the DFT/PBE calculations find an iron 3d contribution in the HOMO. The experimental photoelectron spectra of the valence band taken at different energies were simulated by means of the Gelius model, taking into account the atomic subshell photoionization cross sections. Moreover, calculations of the electronic structure of FePc using the GGA+U method were performed, where the strong correlations of the Fe 3d electronic states were incorporated through the Hubbard model. Through a comparison with our quantum chemical calculations we find that the best agreement with the experimental results is obtained for a U(eff) value of 5 eV.

Elucidating the 3d Electronic Configuration in Manganese Phthalocyanine

To shed light on the metal 3d electronic structure of manganese phthalocyanine, so far controversial, we performed photoelectron measurements both in the gas phase and as thin film. With the purpose of explaining the experimental results,three different electronic configurations close in energy to one another were studied by means of density functional theory. The comparison between the calculated valence band density of states and the measured spectra revealed that in the gas phase the molecules exhibit a mixed electronic configuration, while in the thin film, manganese phthalocyanine finds itself in the theoretically computed ground state, namely, the b1(2g)e3(g)a1(1g)b0(1g) electronic configuration.

Vibrationally resolved high-resolution NEXAFS and XPS spectra of phenanthrene and coronene

We performed a combined experimental and theoretical study of the C1s Near-Edge X-ray Absorption Fine-Structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy in the gas phase of two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (phenanthrene and coronene), typically formed in combustion reactions. In the NEXAFS of both molecules, a double-peak structure appears in the C1s → LUMO region, which differ by less than 1 eV in transition energies. The vibronic coupling is found to play an important role in such systems. It leads to weakening of the lower-energy peak and strengthening of the higher-energy one because the 0 - n (n > 0) vibrational progressions of the lower-energy peak appear in nearly the same region of the higher-energy peak. Vibrationally resolved theoretical spectra computed within the Frank-Condon (FC) approximation and linear coupling model agree well with the high-resolution experimental results. We find that FC-active normal modes all correspond to in-plane vibrations.

The Low Density Matter (LDM) beamline at FERMI: optical layout and first commissioning

A description of the LDM beamline of FERMI is given, with a detailed description of the photon transport.

The ionic states of iodobenzene studied by photoionization and ab initio configuration interaction and DFT computations

New valence electron photoelectron spectra of iodobenzene obtained using synchrotron radiation have been recorded. Ionization energies (IEs) determined using multi-configuration SCF calculation (MCSCF) procedures confirmed the adiabatic IE order as: X(2)B1<A(2)A2<B(2)B2<C(2)B1. Although it is convenient to retain C2v labelling, there is an evidence that minor distortion to CS symmetry occurs at the MCSCF level for the C state. The fifth ionization process shown to be D(2)A1 exhibits dissociation to C6H5 (+) + I both in the experimental and theoretical studies. The calculated Franck-Condon vibrational spectral envelopes, including hot band contributions, for the first four ionic states reproduce the observed peak positions and intensities with reasonable accuracy. In order to simulate the observed spectra, different bandwidths are required for different states. The increase in the required bandwidths for the A(2)A2 and B(2)B2 states is attributed to internal conversion to lower-lying states. The presence of relatively high intensity sequence bands leads to asymmetry of each of the X(2)B1 state bands.

Dissociative double photoionization of N2 using synchrotron radiation: Appearance energy of the N2+ dication

Photoionization cross sections for the production of the doubly charged ion N2+ from N2 have been measured by means of synchrotron radiation in the photon energy range from 50 to 110 eV. The appearance energy for N2+ has been determined as 55.2+/-0.2 eV, i.e., about 1.3 eV higher than the spectroscopic dissociation limit leading to the charge asymmetric dissociation channel N2+(2P)+N(4S) at 53.9 eV. The onset of a second threshold at 59.9+/-0.2 eV is detected and the energy dependence of photoion intensities near the threshold regions is interpreted in terms of the Wannier theory. The production of the N2+ dication is discussed in terms of direct and indirect mechanisms for dissociative charge asymmetric photoionization and by comparison with the potential energy curves of the intermediate N(2)2+ dication. Experimental evidences for the opening of the Coulomb explosion channel N2++N+ at high photon energies are provided by measuring the kinetic energy release spectra of N2+ fragments at selected photon energies.

Interpretation of the vacuum ultraviolet photoabsorption spectrum of iodobenzene by ab initio computations.

Identification of many Rydberg states in iodobenzene, especially from the first and fourth ionization energies (IE1 and IE4, X(2)B1 and C(2)B1), has become possible using a new ultraviolet (UV) and vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) absorption spectrum, in the region 29 000-87 000 cm(-1) (3.60-10.79 eV), measured at room temperature with synchrotron radiation. A few Rydberg states based on IE2 (A(2)A2) were found, but those based on IE3 (B(2)B2) are undetectable. The almost complete absence of observable Rydberg states relating to IE2 and IE3 (A(2)A2 and B(2)B2, respectively) is attributed to them being coupled to the near-continuum, high-energy region of Rydberg series converging on IE1. Theoretical studies of the UV and VUV spectra used both time-dependent density functional (TDDFT) and multi-reference multi-root doubles and singles-configuration interaction methods. The theoretical adiabatic excitation energies, and their corresponding vibrational profiles, gave a satisfactory interpretation of the experimental results. The calculations indicate that the UV onset contains both 1(1)B1 and 1(1)B2 states with very low oscillator strength, while the 2(1)B1 state was found to lie under the lowest ππ(∗) 1(1)A1 state. All three of these (1)B1 and (1)B2 states are excitations into low-lying σ(∗) orbitals. The strongest VUV band near 7 eV contains two very strong ππ(∗) valence states, together with other weak contributors. The lowest Rydberg 4b16s state (3(1)B1) is very evident as a sharp multiplet near 6 eV; its position and vibrational structure are well reproduced by the TDDFT results.

The electronic characterization of biphenylene-Experimental and theoretical insights from core and valence level spectroscopy

In this paper, we provide detailed insights into the electronic structure of the gas phase biphenylene molecule through core and valence spectroscopy. By comparing results of X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) measurements with ΔSCF core-hole calculations in the framework of Density Functional Theory (DFT), we could decompose the characteristic contributions to the total spectra and assign them to non-equivalent carbon atoms. As a difference with similar molecules like biphenyl and naphthalene, an influence of the localized orbitals on the relative XPS shifts was found. The valence spectrum probed by photoelectron spectroscopy at a photon energy of 50 eV in conjunction with hybrid DFT calculations revealed the effects of the localization on the electronic states. Using the transition potential approach to simulate the X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements, similar contributions from the non-equivalent carbon atoms were determined from the total spectrum, for which the slightly shifted individual components can explain the observed asymmetric features.

Ultrafast Charge Transfer Pathways Through A Prototype Amino-Carboxylic Molecular Junction

Charge transport properties of a vertically stacked organic heterojunction based on the amino-carboxylic (A-C) hydrogen bond coupling scheme are investigated by means of X-ray resonant photoemission and the core-hole clock method. We demonstrate that hydrogen bonding in molecular bilayers of benzoic acid/cysteamine (BA/CA) with an A-C coupling scheme opens a site selective pathway for ultrafast charge transport through the junction. Whereas charge transport from single BA layer directly coupled to the Au(111) is very fast and it is mediated by the phenyl group, the interposition of an anchoring layer of CA selectively hinders the delocalization of electrons from the BA phenyl group but opens a fast charge delocalization route through the BA orbitals close to the A-C bond. This evidences that hydrogen bonding established upon A-C recognition can be exploited to spatially/orbitally manipulate the charge transport properties of heteromolecular junctions.