The
valence and core-level photoelectron spectra of gaseous indole,
2,3-dihydro-7-azaindole, and 3-formylindole have been investigated
using VUV and soft X-ray radiation supported by both an ab initio
electron propagator and density functional theory calculations. Three
methods were used to calculate the outer valence band photoemission
spectra: outer valence Green function, partial third order, and renormalized
partial third order. While all gave an acceptable description of the
valence spectra, the last method yielded very accurate agreement,
especially for indole and 3-formylindole. The carbon, nitrogen, and
oxygen 1s core-level spectra of these heterocycles were measured and
assigned. The double ionization appearance potential for indole has
been determined to be 21.8 ± 0.2 eV by C 1s and N 1s Auger photoelectron
spectroscopy. Theoretical analysis identifies the doubly ionized states
as a band consisting of two overlapping singlet states and one triplet
state with dominant configurations corresponding to holes in the two
uppermost molecular orbitals. One of the singlet states and the triplet
state can be described as consisting largely of a single configuration,
but other doubly ionized states are heavily mixed by configuration
interactions. This work provides full assignment of the relative binding
energies of the core level features and an analysis of the electronic
structure of substituted indoles in comparison with the parent indole.