Dynamical symmetry breaking under core excitation in graphite: Polarization correlation in soft X-ray recombination emission

A recombination emission spectrum is applied to study the local lattice distortion due to core excitation in graphite. The recombination emission spectrum reveals a long low-energy tail when the C $1s$ electron is excited to the $\sigma^*$ core exciton state. This indicates a large local lattice distortion around the excited carbon atom within a core hole lifetime ($\sim$10fs). Theoretical calculation based upon an ionic cluster model well reproduces the experiments. The strong polarization correlation between incident and emitted X-rays is conclusive evidence of symmetry breaking in the core exciton state due to coupling with asymmetric vibrational modes.