Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• You, D.
• Fukuzawa, H.
• Sakakibara, Y.
• Takanashi, T.
• Ito, Y.
• Maliyar, G. G.
• Motomura, K.
• Nagaya, K.
• Nishiyama, T.
• Asa, K.
• Sato, Y.
• Saito, N.
• Oura, M.
• Schöffler, M.
• Kastirke, G.
• Hergenhahn, U.
• Stumpf, V.
• Gokhberg, K.
• Kuleff, A. I.
• Cederbaum, L. S.
• Ueda, K

Titel

Charge transfer to ground-state ions produces free electrons

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2017-01, Vol.8 (1), p.14277-14277, Article 14277

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group UK

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Inner-shell ionization of an isolated atom typically leads to Auger decay. In an environment, for example, a liquid or a van der Waals bonded system, this process will be modified, and becomes part of a complex cascade of relaxation steps. Understanding these steps is important, as they determine the production of slow electrons and singly charged radicals, the most abundant products in radiation chemistry. In this communication, we present experimental evidence for a so-far unobserved, but potentially very important step in such relaxation cascades: Multiply charged ionic states after Auger decay may partially be neutralized by electron transfer, simultaneously evoking the creation of a low-energy free electron (electron transfer-mediated decay). This process is effective even after Auger decay into the dicationic ground state. In our experiment, we observe the decay of Ne 2+ produced after Ne 1 s photoionization in Ne–Kr mixed clusters. Slow electrons, which cause radiation damage, are efficiently produced by interatomic neutralization processes. Here, the authors show experimental evidence for the efficient neutralization of the ionic states produced in Auger decay, using large neon–krypton clusters as a prototype system.