A hitherto unrecognized source of low-energy electrons in water

TLDR: In this article, the authors investigate the production of low-energy electrons in amorphous medium-sized water clusters, which simulate water molecules in an aqueous environment, and identify a hitherto unrecognized extra source of lowenergy electrons produced by a non-local autoionization process called intermolecular coulombic decay (ICD).

Abstract: Most of the low-energy electrons emitted from a material when it is subjected to ionization radiation are believed to be directly ionized secondary electrons. Coincidence measurements of the electrons ejected from water clusters suggests many are produced by a quantitatively new mechanism, known as intermolecular Coulombic decay. Low-energy electrons are the most abundant product of ionizing radiation in condensed matter. The origin of these electrons is most commonly understood to be secondary electrons1 ionized from core or valence levels by incident radiation and slowed by multiple inelastic scattering events. Here, we investigate the production of low-energy electrons in amorphous medium-sized water clusters, which simulate water molecules in an aqueous environment. We identify a hitherto unrecognized extra source of low-energy electrons produced by a non-local autoionization process called intermolecular coulombic decay2 (ICD). The unequivocal signature of this process is observed in coincidence measurements of low-energy electrons and photoelectrons generated from inner-valence states with vacuum-ultraviolet light. As ICD is expected to take place universally in weakly bound aggregates containing light atoms between carbon and neon in the periodic table2,3, these results could have implications for our understanding of ionization damage in living tissues.