Experimental evidence of interatomic resonant Auger electron emission from fixed-in-space NO molecules

Interatomic resonant Auger can take place when the photon energy is tuned to a resonant core-level excitation of an atom neighbouring the emitting atom, with the emitting core-level having a lower binding energy than the resonant core-level. This phenomenon in a hetero-nuclear diatomic molecule has been demonstrated for the first time as the intensity enhancement of the lower core-level photoemission. Such a phenomenon should be considered to be general and then the present results in the simplest system open a door to a new horizon of photoemission studies for both isolated molecules and condensed systems including different atoms. (fast track communication)