Radiation Generated by Charge Migration Following Ionization

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that charge migration following ionization in molecules produces characteristic IR radiation, with stronger UV emission observed when ionization occurs via sudden electron removal, revealing universal ultrafast electronic responses.

Contribution

It shows that purely electronic charge migration generates characteristic IR radiation and that sudden ionization induces strong UV emission, highlighting universal ultrafast electronic phenomena.

Findings

Charge migration produces IR radiation.

Sudden electron removal causes strong UV emission.

Ultrafast electronic response is universal in multielectron systems.

Abstract

Electronic many-body effects alone can be the driving force for an ultrafast migration of a positive charge created upon ionization of molecular systems. Here we show that this purely electronic phenomenon generates a characteristic IR radiation. The situation when the initial ionic wave packet is produced by a sudden removal of an electron is also studied. It is shown that in this case a much stronger UV emission is generated. This emission appears as an ultrafast response of the remaining electrons to the perturbation caused by the sudden ionization and as such is a universal phenomenon to be expected in every multielectron system.