Studies of the photoionization cross sections of CH 4

We present cross sections and asymmetry parameters for photoionization of the lt2 orbital of CH4 using static-exchange continuum orbitals of CH/ to represent the photoelectron wave function. The calculations are done in the fixed-nuclei approximation at a single internuclear geometry. To approximate the near-threshold behavior of these cross sections, we assumed that the photoelectron spectrum is a composite of three electronic bands associated with the Jahn-Teller components of the distorted ion. The resulting cross sections reproduce the sharp rise seen at threshold in the experimental data and are in good agreement with experiment at higher energy. The agreement between the calculated and measured photoelectron asymmetry parameters is, however, less satisfactory.