UC Davis

A dramatic symmetry breaking in K-shell photoionization of the CF4 molecule in which a core-hole vacancy is created in one of four equivalent fluorine atoms is displayed in the molecular frame angular distribution of the photoelectrons. Observing the photoejected electron in coincidence with an F+ atomic ion after Auger decay is shown to select the dissociation path where the core hole was localized almost exclusively on that atom. A combination of measurements and ab initio calculations of the photoelectron angular distribution in the frame of the recoiling CF3+ and F+ atoms elucidates the underlying physics that derives from the Ne-like valence structure of the F(1s-1) core-excited atom.