Interferences in Photodetachment of a Negative Molecular IonModel

By employing a two-center model, the total and differential crosssections in the photodetachment of ``a negative molecular ion" arestudied theoretically and obtained for the case of lightpolarization parallel to the molecular axis. We find that incontrast to the smooth behavior of the total cross section forperpendicular polarized light, the cross section for parallelpolarized light shows an interesting oscillatory structure. Theoscillations in the total cross section may provide a method todetermine the distance between the two centers. We explain the oscillationin the total cross section as an interference effect using closed-orbit theory. We also calculated the detached-electron flux distributions on a screen placed at a large distance from the negative molecular ion. The distributionsdisplay multiple-ring-like interference patterns. Such interferencepatterns are similar to those in the photodetachment microscopyexperiments.