Coulombic energy transfer and triple ionization in clusters

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Apr 18;90(15):153401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.153401. Epub 2003 Apr 18.

Abstract

Using neon and its dimer as a specific example, it is shown that excited Auger decay channels that are electronically stable in the isolated monomer can relax in a cluster by electron emission. The decay mechanism, leading to the formation of a tricationic cluster, is based on an efficient energy-transfer process from the excited, dicationic monomer to a neighbor. The decay is ultrafast and expected to be relevant to numerous physical phenomena involving core holes in clusters and other forms of spatially extended atomic and molecular matter.