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At least 199 records · Page 11

Charging of insulators by multiply-charged-ion impact probed by slowing down of fast binary-encounter electrons

The interaction of ion beams with insulators leads to charging-up phenomena, which at present are under investigation in connection with guiding phenomena in nanocapillaries with possible application in nanofocused beams. We studied the charging dynamics of insulating foil targets [Mylar, polypropylene (PP)] irradiated with swift ion beams (C, O, Ag, and Xe at 40, 23, 40, and 30 MeV/u, respectively) via the measurement of the slowing down of fast binary-encounter electrons. Also, sandwich targets (Mylar covered with a thin Au layer on both surfaces) and Mylar with Au on only one surface were used. Fast-electron spectra were measured by the time-of-flight method at the superconducting cyclotron of Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS) Catania. The charge buildup leads to target-material-dependent potentials of the order of 6.0 kV for Mylar and 2.8 kV for PP. The sandwich targets, surprisingly, show the same behavior as the insulating targets, whereas a single Au layer on the electron and ion exit side strongly suppresses the charging phenomenon. The accumulated number of projectiles needed for charging up is inversely proportional to electronic energy loss. Thus, the charging up is directly related to emission of secondary electrons.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Rocket Measurements of Electron Energy Spectra From Earth's Photoelectron Production Layer

Photoelectrons are crucial to atmospheric physics. They heat the atmosphere, strengthen planetary ambipolar electric fields, and enhance the outflow of ions to space. However, there exist only a handful of measurements of their energy spectrum near the peak of photoproduction. We present calibrated energy spectra of pristine photoelectrons at their source by a prototype Dual Electrostatic Analyzer (DESA) instrument flown on 11 July 2021 aboard the Dynamo-2 sounding rocket (NASA № 36.357). Photopeaks arising from 30.4 nm He-II spectral line were observed throughout the flight above 120 km. DESA also successfully resolved the rarely observed N2 absorption feature. Below 10 eV observations were in good agreement with the GLOW suprathermal electron. Above 10 eV fluxes substantially deviated from the model by as much as an order of magnitude.

Glyn A. Collinson↗

Construction of a magnetic bottle spectrometer and its application to pulse duration measurement of X-ray laser using a pump-probe method

To characterize the temporal evolution of ultrashort X-ray pulses emitted by laser plasmas using a pump-probe method, a magnetic bottle time-of-flight electron spectrometer is constructed. The design is determined by numerical calculations of a mirror magnetic field and of the electron trajectory in a flight tube. The performance of the spectrometer is characterized by measuring the electron spectra of xenon atoms irradiated with a laser-driven plasma X-ray pulse. In addition, two-color above-threshold ionization (ATI) experiment is conducted for measurement of the X-ray laser pulse duration, in which xenon atoms are simultaneously irradiated with an X-ray laser pump and an IR laser probe. The correlation in the intensity of the sideband spectra of the 4d inner-shell photoelectrons and in the time delay of the two laser pulses yields an X-ray pulse width of 5.7 ps, in good agreement with the value obtained using an X-ray streak camera.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Natural Charge-Transfer Analysis: Eliminating Spurious Charge-Transfer States in Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory via Diabatization, with Application to Projection-Based Embedding

For many types of vertical excitation energies, linear-response time-dependent density functional theory (LR-TDDFT) offers a useful degree of accuracy combined with unrivaled computational efficiency, although charge-transfer excitation energies are often systematically and dramatically underestimated, especially for large systems and those that contain explicit solvent. As a result, low energy electronic spectra of solution-phase chromophores often contain tens to hundreds of spurious charge-transfer states, making LR-TDDFT needlessly expensive in bulk solution. More nefariously, intensity borrowing by the low-energy charge-transfer states can affect intensities of the valence excitations even if those excitation energies are accurate. At higher excitation energies, it is difficult to distinguish spurious CT states from genuine charge-transfer-to-solvent (CTTS) excitations. In this work, we introduce an automated diabatization scheme that enables fast and effective screening of the CTTS acceptor space in bulk solution. Our procedure introduces the concept of “natural charge-transfer orbitals”, which provide a means to isolate characteristic pairs of orbitals that are most likely to participate in a CTTS excitation. The projection of these orbitals onto solvent-centered virtual orbitals provides a criterion for defining the most important solvent molecules in a given excitation. We apply this method to analyze an ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) trajectory of I-(aq) and report the lowest-energy CTTS band in the absorption spectrum. Our results are in excellent agreement with experimental measurements for bulk I-(aq), and only one-third of the water molecules in the I-(H2O)96 simulation cell need to be described with LR-TDDFT in order to obtain excitation energies that are converged to < 0.1 eV. The tools introduced herein will improve the accuracy, efficiency, and usability of LR-TDDFT in solution-phase environments

Carter-Fenk, Kevin D.↗

Optical absorptions of oxygenated carbon chain cations in the gas phase

The gas-phase electronic spectra of linear OC{sub 4}O{sup +} and a planar C{sub 6}H{sub 2}O{sup +} isomer were obtained at a rotational temperature of ≈10 K. Absorption measurements in a 6 K neon matrix were followed by gas-phase observations in a cryogenic radiofrequency ion trap. The origin bands of the 1{sup 2}Π{sub u} ← X{sup 2}Π{sub g} transition of OC{sub 4}O{sup +} and the 1{sup 2}A{sub 2} ←X{sup 2}B{sub 1} of HCCC(CO)CCH{sup +} lie at 417.31 ± 0.01 nm and 523.49 ± 0.01 nm, respectively. These constitute the first electronic spectra of oxygenated carbon chain cations studied under conditions that are relevant to the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs), as both have a visible transition. The recent analysis of the 579.5 nm DIB indicates that small carriers, five to seven heavy atoms, continue to be possible candidates (Huang and Oka 2015). Astronomical implications are discussed regarding this kind of oxygenated molecules.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Observation of Work Functions, Metallicity, Band Bending, Interfacial Dipoles by EUPS for Characterizing High-k/Metal Interfaces

EUPS (EUV excited photoelectron spectroscopy) is a novel photoelectron spectroscopy technique, in which a sample is excited with 4.86 nm (255 eV), 3-ns pulse EUV light emitted from a laser-produced plasma and the resulting electron spectrum is analyzed with a time-of-flight (TOF) analyzer. EUPS gives information of the topmost atoms because the escape depth of photo-electrons excited by 4.86 nm light is only 0.5 nm. EUPS can evaluate band-bending because the peak density of the excitation light on the sample is extremely high, so that bent electronic bands in semiconductors can be flattened. Secondary electron spectra, from which the vacuum level of the material surface can be determined, are obtained very quickly owing to the use of a TOF analyzer, The metal gate related issues are one of the most challenging topics facing CMOS technology. This paper demonstrates EUPS as a powerful method for characterizing high-k/metal interfaces by showing data from direct observations of interfacial dipoles.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Multielectron spectroscopy: Auger decays of the krypton 3d hole

The emission of one or two Auger electrons, following Kr 3d inner-shell ionization by synchrotron light, has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically. All electrons emitted in the process are detected in coincidence and analyzed in energy thanks to a magnetic-bottle electron time-of-flight spectrometer. In addition, noncoincident high-resolution electron spectra have been measured to characterize the cascade double-Auger paths more fully. Combination of the two experimental approaches and of our calculations allows a full determination of the decay pathways and branching ratios in the case of Kr 3d single- and double-Auger decays. The Kr{sup 3+} threshold is found at 74.197{+-}0.020 eV.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Selfsimilar and fractal analysis of n-type delta-doped quasiregular GaAs quantum wells

We study the electronic structure of n-type delta-doped quantum wells in GaAs in which the multiple well system is built according to the Fibonacci sequence. The building blocks A and B correspond to delta-doped wells with impurities densities n{sub 2DA} and n{sub 2DB}, and the same well width. The Thomas-Fermi approximation, the semi-empirical sp{sub 3}s* tight-binding model including spin, the Surface Green Function Matching method and the Transfer Matrix approach were implemented to obtain the confining potential, the electronic structure and the selfsimilarity of the spectrum. The fragmentation of the electronic spectra is observed whenever the building blocks A and B interact and it increases as the difference of impurities density between A and B increases as well. The wave function of the first sate of the fragmented bands presents critical characteristics, this is, it is not a localized state nor a extended one as well as it has selfsimilar features. So, the quasiregular characteristics are preserved irrespective of the complexity of the system and can affect the performance of devices based on these structures.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Interatomic decay of inner-valence ionized states in ArXe clusters: Relativistic approach

In this work we investigate interatomic electronic decay processes taking place in mixed argon-xenon clusters upon the inner-valence ionization of an argon center. We demonstrate that both interatomic Coulombic decay and electron-transfer mediated decay (ETMD) are important in larger rare gas clusters as opposed to dimers. Calculated secondary electron spectra are shown to depend strongly on the spin-orbit coupling in the final states of the decay as well as the presence of polarizable environment. It follows from our calculations that ETMD is a pure interface process taking place between the argon-xenon layers. The interplay of all these effects is investigated in order to arrive at a suitable physical model for the decay of inner-valence vacancies taking place in mixed ArXe clusters.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Strong-field photoionization of O{sub 2} at intermediate light intensity

We investigated by electron spectroscopy the strong-field multiphoton ionization of O{sub 2} molecules with ultrashort laser pulses in the intensity range between the multiphoton and tunneling regimes. The ionization proceeds by at least three different mechanisms, in addition to the eight- and nine-photon nonresonant pathways. Transient multiphoton resonances with vibrational Rydberg levels give rise to direct Freeman-type peaks with sublaser linewidth and spin-orbit splitting. Some resonance levels actually become populated and yield extremely narrow lines because of postpulse vibrational autoionization. When the lowest photon order resonance channel for the Rydberg states is closed, a third contribution becomes dominant with a main peak at 0.4 eV that shares its main properties with the recently discovered universal low-energy structure in the electron spectra of atoms and molecules [C. I. Blaga et al., Nat. Phys. 5, 335 (2009); W. Quan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 093001 (2009)]. The variation of the Freeman resonance spectrum with the laser peak intensity is well correlated with the vibronic Franck-Condon factors for the overlap of the intermediate Rydberg state with the O{sub 2} ground state. Accordingly, the Freeman peaks could be unambiguously assigned to individual vibronic multiphoton resonances, and the disappearance of the Freeman resonances at a certain laser intensity could be explained. The population of the autoionizing Rydberg states could be assigned similarly to such vibronic resonances.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Experimental and theoretical study of core-valence double photoionization of OCS

O 1s, C 1s, and S 2p core-valence double ionization electron spectra of the OCS molecule have been obtained experimentally by a time-of-flight photoelectron-photoelectron coincidence spectroscopy technique. In order to analyze and assign the spectral features observed, we present a protocol for computing core-valence ionization energies of such systems. The protocol is based on a restricted active space multiconfigurational self-consistent field (MCSCF) methodology with a freeze-relax procedure to guarantee a correct core-valence state root index without variational collapse. Corrections for extended dynamical correlation and core-core correlation, respectively, are made by multiconfigurational perturbation theory and by uncontracted basis set Moeller-Plesset theory. Envisioning applications to larger molecules, a spin-restricted open-shell density functional method is also applied for the lowest core-valence energies. Furthermore, cross sections through a scheme for computing multiatom Auger transitions generating core-valence holes are presented. We find that the procedure outlined is capable of deriving the energy onset of core-valence ionization within a fraction of an eV and that assignments can be made of the most salient spectral features.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Effects of recoil spectra and electronic energy dissipation on defect survival in 3C-SiC

The coincidence of electronic and damage energy dissipation from energetic ions to an atomic lattice can significantly affect damage production along the ion trajectory due to spatial overlap of inelastic and elastic processes. Damage production and disordering in single crystal 3C-SiC from 5 MeV Si and 10 MeV Au ions is investigated using ion-channeling experiments. While defects are created by damage energy dissipation via elastic scattering, electronic energy dissipation via electron-phonon coupling decreases defect survival along the ion trajectory for Si ions. Finally, the more energetic recoil spectrum for 10 MeV Au ions leads to weaker spatial coupling of electronic and damage energy dissipation processes, and damage production is only weakly affected.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Modeling the Electronic Absorption Spectra of the Indocarbocyanine Cy3

Accurate modeling of optical spectra requires careful treatment of the molecular structures and vibronic, environmental, and thermal contributions. The accuracy of the computational methods used to simulate absorption spectra is limited by their ability to account for all the factors that affect the spectral shapes and energetics. The ensemble-based approaches are widely used to model the absorption spectra of molecules in the condensed-phase, and their performance is system dependent. The Franck–Condon approach is suitable for simulating high resolution spectra of rigid systems, and its accuracy is limited mainly by the harmonic approximation. In this work, the absorption spectrum of the widely used cyanine Cy3 is simulated using the ensemble approach via classical and quantum sampling, as well as, the Franck–Condon approach. The factors limiting the ensemble approaches, including the sampling and force field effects, are tested, while the vertical and adiabatic harmonic approximations of the Franck–Condon approach are also systematically examined. Our results show that all the vertical methods, including the ensemble approach, are not suitable to model the absorption spectrum of Cy3, and recommend the adiabatic methods as suitable approaches for the modeling of spectra with strong vibronic contributions. We find that the thermal effects, the low frequency modes, and the simultaneous vibrational excitations have prominent contributions to the Cy3 spectrum. The inclusion of the solvent stabilizes the energetics significantly, while its negligible effect on the spectral shapes aligns well with the experimental observations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The Production of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Anions in Inert Gas Matrices Doped with Alkali Metals. Electronic Absorption Spectra of the Pentacene Anion (C22H14(-))

The absorption spectra of pentacene (C22H14) and its radical cation (C22H14(+)) and anion (C22H14(-)) isolated in inert-gas matrices of Ne, Ar, and Kr are reported from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared. The associated vibronic band systems and their spectroscopic assignments are discussed together with the physical and chemical conditions governing ion (and counterion) production in the solid matrix. In particular, the formation of isolated pentacene anions is found to be optimized in matrices doped with alkali metal (Na and K).

Halasinski, Thomas M.↗