PNNL

Abstract

Valence-to-core (VtC) X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) has emerged as a power- ful technique for the structural characterization of complex organometallic compounds in realistic environments. Since the spectrum represents electronic transitions from the ligand molecular orbitals to the core holes of the metal centers, the approach is more chemically sensitive to the metal-ligand bonding character compared with con- ventional X-ray absorption techniques. In this paper we study how linear-response time-dependent density functional theory (LR-TDDFT) can be harnessed to simulate K-edge VtC X-ray emission spectra reliably. LR-TDDFT allows one to go beyond the single-particle picture that has been extensively used to simulate VtC-XES. We con- sider seven low- and high-spin model complexes involving chromium, manganese and iron transition metal centers. Our results are in good agreement with experiment.