M. Kircher, J. Rist, F. Trinter, S. Grundmann, M. Waitz, N. Melzer, I. Vela-Perez, T. Mletzko, A. Pier, N. Strenger, J. Siebert, R. Janssen, V. Honkimäki, J. Drnec, Ph. V. Demekhin, L. Ph. H. Schmidt, M. S. Schöffler, T. Jahnke, and R. Dörner
Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 193001
Publication year: 2019

We investigate K-shell ionization of N2 at 40 keV photon energy. Using a cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy reaction microscope, we determine the vector momenta of the photoelectron, the Auger electron, and both N+ fragments. These fully differential data show that the dissociation process of the N2+2 ion is significantly modified not only by the recoil momentum of the photoelectron but also by the photon momentum and the momentum of the emitted Auger electron. We find that the recoil energy introduced by the photon and the photoelectron momentum is partitioned with a ratio of approximately 3070 between the Auger electron and fragment ion kinetic energies, respectively. We also observe that the photon momentum induces an additional rotation of the molecular ion.