Predictions of rotation-vibration effects in time-resolved photoelectron angular distributions.

We investigate the physical origin of direct reflection of rotation-vibration coupling in time-resolved photoelectron angular distributions. The theory is developed for a general rotation-vibration coupling mechanism in a polyatomic system and applied to the simplest instance of such interaction, namely centrifugal coupling in a diatomic molecule. Our results suggest the possibility of determining coupling strengths from the observed time dependence of the ionization asymmetry parameters. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]