Gradual collapse of nuclear wave functions regulated by frequency tuned X-ray scattering.

ABSTRACT: As is well established, the symmetry breaking by isotope substitution in the water molecule results in localisation of the vibrations along one of the two bonds in the ground state. In this study we find that this localisation may be broken in excited electronic states. Contrary to the ground state, the stretching vibrations of HDO are delocalised in the bound core-excited state in spite of the mass difference between hydrogen and deuterium. The reason for this effect can be traced to the narrow "canyon-like" shape of the potential of the state along the symmetric stretching mode, which dominates over the localisation mass-difference effect. In contrast, the localisation of nuclear motion to one of the HDO bonds is preserved in the dissociative core-excited state . The dynamics of the delo

SUBMITTER: Ignatova N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5339714 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature