Efficient Site-specific Low-energy Electron Production via Interatomic Coulombic Decay Following Resonant Auger Decay

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that resonant Auger decay in argon dimers efficiently produces site-specific low-energy electrons through interatomic Coulombic decay, with implications for localized radiation damage.

Contribution

It reveals the efficiency of resonant core excitation in generating site-specific low-energy electrons via ICD in argon dimers, highlighting differences in decay rates.

Findings

Resonant Auger decay effectively produces slow electrons at specific sites.

ICD rate for $3p^{-2}4d$ is lower than for $3p^{-2}3d$.

Resonant core excitation can cause localized radiation damage.

Abstract

We identified interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) channels in argon dimers after spectator-type resonant Auger decay $2p^{-1}~3d \to 3p^{-2}3d, 4d$ in one of the atoms, using momentum resolved electron-ion-ion coincidence. The results illustrate that the resonant core excitation is a very efficient way of producing slow electrons at a specific site, which may cause localized radiation damage. We find also that ICD rate for $3p^{-2}4d$ is significantly lower than that for $3p^{-2}3d$.