Experimental Realization of Auger Decay in the Field of a Positive Elementary Charge.

Auger electron spectroscopy is an omnipresent experimental tool in many fields of fundamental research and applied science. The determination of the kinetic energies of the Auger electrons yields information about the element emitting the electron and its chemical environment at the time of emission. Here, we present an experimental approach to determine Auger spectra for emitter sites in the vicinity of a positive elementary charge based on electron-electron-electron and electron-electron-photon coincidence spectroscopy.

DFT mechanistic study of the chemical fixation of CO by aziridine derivatives.

Using density functional theory (DFT), we treat the reaction of coupling of CO with aziridine in gas phase, in the presence of water and of a green catalyst (NaBr). Computations show that, in gas phase, this ring-opening conversions to oxazolidinones initiates by coordinating a CO molecule to the nitrogen atom of the aziridine. Then, a nucleophilic interaction between one oxygen atom of the coordinated CO and the carbon atom of the aziridine occurs.

Doubly ionized OCS bond rearrangement upon fragmentation - experiment and theory.

The dissociation of OCS ions formed by photoionization of the neutral molecule at 40.81 eV is examined using threefold and fourfold electron-ion coincidence spectroscopy combined with high level quantum chemical calculations on isomeric structures and their potential energy surfaces. The dominant dissociation channel of [OCS] is charge separation forming CO + S ion pairs, found here to be formed with low intensity at a lower-energy onset and with a correspondingly smaller kinetic energy release than in the more intense higher energy channel previously reported.

First (e,e) coincidence measurements on solvated sodium benzoate in water using a magnetic bottle time-of-flight spectrometer.

Understanding the mechanisms of X-ray radiation damage in biological systems is of prime interest in medicine (radioprotection, X-ray therapy…). Study of low-energy rays, such as soft-X rays and light ions, points to attribute their lethal effect to clusters of energy deposition by low-energy electrons. The first step, at the atomic or molecular level, is often the ionization of inner-shell electrons followed by Auger decay in an aqueous environment.

Fragmentation dynamics of CHCl ( = 2,3): theory and experiment.

A combined theoretical and experimental study of the dissociation of the di- and trication of the CHCl molecule has been performed. Experimentally, these multi-charged ions were produced after interactions of a CHCl effusive jet with a mono-energetic beam of H or Ar projectile ions. Theoretically, we mapped the multi-dimensional potential energy surfaces of CHCl, HCClH and CHCl species in their electronic ground and electronically excited states using post-Hartree-Fock configuration interaction methods.