Interference effects in H2photoionization at high energies

We present a theoretical study of H 2 ionization by photons of a few hundreds of eV. Accurate bound and continuum states are obtained by using B -spline basis functions. In agreement with a simple model by Cohen and Fano [6], we observe interference effects that can be interpreted as a result of the coherent emission from both molecular centres. Nevertheless, significant discrepancies are found at low electron energies, in agreement with recent experimental observations. The origin of this ‘anomalous’ behaviour at low electron energies is discussed in detail.