Multiatom Resonant Photoemission: Theory and Systematics

A first-principles calculation of the recently discovered interatomic multiatom resonant photoemission (MARPE) effect is presented. In this phenomenon, core photoelectron intensities are enhanced when the photon energy is tuned to a core-level absorption edge of nonidentical neighboring atoms, thus enabling direct determination of near-neighbor atomic identities. Both the multiatom character of MARPE and retardation effects in the photon and electron interactions in the resonant channel are shown to be crucial. Measured peak-intensity enhancements of $40%$ in MnO and spectral shapes similar to the corresponding x-ray absorption profiles are well reproduced by this theory.