Molecular Science Using Electron Collisions

Abstract

Over the last half century an experimental method has been developed for measuring momentum density distributions of each electron bound in a molecule or looking at spatial patterns of individual molecular orbitals in momentum space. The method, called electron momentum spectroscopy, is based on the electron-impact ionizing reaction by Compton scattering that occurs near the Bethe ridge at incident electron energies of the order of 1 keV or higher. This account reviews frontiers of the field, as well as another application of electron Compton scattering, that is, direct observation of intramolecular motions of each constituting atom.