Molecular Auger Interferometry

Abstract

We introduce and present a theory of interferometric measurement of a normal Auger decay lifetime in molecules. Molecular Auger interferometry is based on the coherent phase control of Auger dynamics in a two-color (ω/2ω) laser field. We show that, in contrast to atoms, in oriented molecules of certain point groups the relative ω/2ω phase modulates the total ionization yield. A simple analytical formula is derived for the extraction of the lifetimes of Auger-active states from a molecular Auger interferogram, circumventing the need in either high-resolution or attosecond spectroscopy. We demonstrate the principle of the interferometric Auger lifetime measurement using inner-valence decay in CH_{3}F.