Fragmentation of nitrous oxide by monochromatic soft x rays

Studies of the fragmentation of nitrous oxide using time-of-flight mass spectroscopy following excitation by monochromatic synchrotron radiation are reported. The consequences of core electron excitation of all three atoms to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital are described. Clear changes in the mass spectra with the atomic site of excitation are observed. These changes can be understood qualitatively in terms of the atomic populations, which govern the Auger decay channels, and the overlap populations, which determine the bond structure, of the valence molecular orbitals. Mass spectra correlated with Auger electrons are very similar to mass spectra correlated with events producing low energy electrons. This result may indicate that the selectivity of the primary Auger decay process is not affected by additional excitation events.