Imaging SF 6 with K -Shell Molecular-Frame Photoelectron Angular Distributions

We report a joint experimental and theoretical study of K -shell photoionization of S and F atoms in sulfur hexafluoride, SF 6 . In our experiment, we employed tunable synchrotron radiation to generate photoelectrons emitted from the 1 s shells of the S and F atoms with different kinetic energies. Coincident electron- and fragment-ion detection, carried out using cold target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy, enabled access to polarization-averaged molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions. In addition, we performed electronic structure calculations within the relaxed-core Hartree-Fock approximation by using a stationary single-center method. The calculations are in good agreement with the experiment. Our results support previous findings on the feasibility of imaging three-dimensional atomic arrangements in molecules using polarization-averaged molecular-frame angular distributions. In particular, we demonstrate that such imaging is possible even at intermediate photoelectron kinetic energies and even for six experimentally undistinguished F 1 s emitters.