Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering on CO2: Parity conservation in inversion-symmetric polyatomics

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra excited at the oxygen K edge of CO2 are presented and discussed. Although excitation from a gerade initial state to the intermediate 1s(-1)pi* state breaks the inversion symmetry due to strong vibronic coupling, RIXS excited at the corresponding resonance exclusively populates gerade vibrations in the gerade electronic ground state. This observation constitutes an experimental confirmation of the prediction that the parity selection rule applies in RIXS on an inversion-symmetric polyatomic system, provided that the total electronic-vibronic wave function is considered. Parity selectivity is used for assigning spectra to the population of electronically excited final states, a procedure hampered only when symmetry-breaking vibronic coupling in the final states is prominent. A RIXS spectrum excited in the Rydberg region is tentatively assigned using a simplified quasi-two-step model in which it is assumed that the electron in the Rydberg orbital excited in the first step remains as a spectator during the second decay step.