Attosecond spectroscopy reveals spontaneous symmetry breaking in molecular photoionization
Spontaneous symmetry breaking, driven by nonadiabatic electron-nuclear coupling, can lead to geometric com plexity in molecules and solids. While structural distortion from symmetry breaking occurs in femtoseconds, the timescale to lift electronic state degeneracy has remained elusive. We use the vibrationally resolved attosecond chronoscope to capture the electronic symmetry breaking induced by t
