Soft X-ray Radiation and Monte Carlo Simulations: Good Tools to Describe the Radiation Chemistry of Sub-keV Electrons.

The description of the biological effects of ionizing radiation requires a good knowledge of the dose deposition processes at both the cellular and molecular scales. However, experimental studies on the energy deposition specificity of sub-keV electrons, produced by most radiations, including high-energy photons and heavy ions, are scarce. Soft X-rays (0.2-2 keV) are here used to probe the physical and physico-chemical events occurring upon exposure of liquid water to sub-keV electrons. Liquid water samples were irradiated with a monochromatic photon beam at the SOLEIL synchrotron. Hydroxyl radical quantification was conducted through HO• scavenging using benzoate to form fluorescent hydroxybenzoate. The yields of HO• radicals exhibit a minimum around 1.5 keV, in good agreement with indirect observation. Moreover, they are relatively independent of the benzoate concentration in the range investigated, which corresponds to scavenging times of 170 ns to 170 ps. These results provide evidence that sub-keV electrons behave as high linear energy transfer particles, since they are able to deposit tens to hundreds of electronvolts in nanometric volumes.

An investigation of the sites occupied by atomic barium in solid xenon-A 2D-EE luminescence spectroscopy and molecular dynamics study.

A detailed characterisation of the luminescence recorded for the 6p 1P1-6s 1S0 transition of atomic barium isolated in annealed solid xenon has been undertaken using two-dimensional excitation-emission (2D-EE) spectroscopy. In the excitation spectra extracted from the 2D-EE scans, two dominant thermally stable sites were identified, consisting of a classic, three-fold split Jahn-Teller band, labeled the blue site, and an unusual asymmetric 2 + 1 split band, the violet site. A much weaker band has also been identified, whose emission is strongly overlapped by the violet site. The temperature dependence of the luminescence for these sites was monitored revealing that the blue site has a non-radiative channel competing effectively with the fluorescence even at 9.8 K. By contrast, the fluorescence decay time of the violet site was recorded to be 4.3 ns and independent of temperature up to 24 K. The nature of the dominant thermally stable trapping sites was investigated theoretically with Diatomics-in-Molecule (DIM) molecular dynamics simulations. The DIM model was parameterized with ab initio multi-reference configuration interaction calculations for the lowest energy excited states of the Ba⋅Xe pair. The simulated absorption spectra are compared with the experimental results obtained from site-resolved excitation spectroscopy. The simulations allow us to assign the experimental blue feature spectrum to a tetra-vacancy trapping site in the bulk xenon fcc crystal-a site often observed when trapping other metal atoms in rare gas matrices. By contrast, the violet site is assigned to a specific 5-atom vacancy trapping site located at a grain boundary.

Ground and Excited States Of OH(-)(H2O)n Clusters.

We present an ab initio study of OH(-)(H2O)n (n = 1-7) clusters in their lowest three singlet and two triplet electronic states, calculated with the RASPT2 method. Minimum energy structures were obtained by geometry optimization for both (a) the 1(1)Σ(+) ground state and (b) the 1(3)Π excited state. From these structures, vertical detachment energies (VDEs), transition energies, and atomic charges were calculated. (a) We found that ground-state geometries present the hydroxide at the surface, accepting three and four H bonds from water. The excess charge is strongly stabilized by water up to a VDE of 6.7 eV for n = 7. Bound singlet excited states for ground-state geometries exist for n ≥ 3, and their VDE increases up to 1 eV for n = 7. (b) The 1(3)Π state equilibrium geometries completely differ from the ground-state geometries. They are characterized by the hydroxide acting as a single H bond donor to a water molecule, which then donates a H-bond to two others, forming a "tree" pattern. All minimum energy structures present this "tree" pattern and a constant total number of 2n - 2 H bonds, or equivalently 3 dangling hydrogens. The excess charge stabilizes from n = 2 and goes mainly at the surface, on the dangling hydrogens of water. An almost neutral OH radical is then formed. Resulting structural resemblances with the neutral system make the VDEs of the first excited states weakly geometry dependent but size sensitive because of additive polarization effects. In contrast, the 1(1)Σ(+) state at the 1(3)Π geometries is strongly sensitive to structural patterns. We bring out existing correlations between these patterns and the corresponding 1(1)Σ(+) state energy increase, which leads to couplings with excited states and possibly to an inversion of the state energy order. From these assessments, we propose a scenario for recombination of aqueous hydroxide following excitation in a charge-transfer-to-solvent state.

DFTB Simulation of Charged Clusters Using Machine Learning Charge Inference.

We present a modification to self-consistent charge density functional-based tight binding (SCC-DFTB), which allows computation based on approximate atomic charges. We obtain these charges by means of a machine learning (ML) process that combines a Coulomb model with a neural network. This allows us to avoid the SCC cycles in the SCC-DFTB calculation while maintaining its accuracy. The main input of the model is the atomic positions characterized by a set of atom-centered symmetry functions. The charge inference from our ML algorithm is as close as 10-2 units of charge from the exact SCC solution. Our ML-DFTB approach provides a good approximation of the density matrix and of the energy and forces with only a single diagonalization. This is a significant computational saving with respect to the complete SCC algorithm, which allows us to investigate a bigger ensemble of atoms. We show the quality of our approach in the case of charged silicon carbide (SiC) clusters. The ML-DFTB potential energy surface (PES) mimics the SCC-DFTB PES rather well, despite its simplicity. This allows us to obtain the same geometric structure ordering with respect to energy for small clusters. The dissociation barriers for ion emission are well-reproduced, which opens the way to investigating ion field emission and charged cluster stability. The ML-DFTB approach is obviously not limited to charged clusters or SiC materials. It opens a new route to investigate larger clusters than those investigated by standard SCC-DFTB, as well as surface and solid-state chemistry at the atomic level.

Superoxide Production under Soft X-ray Irradiation of Liquid Water.

Soft X-rays behave like particles with high linear energy transfer, as they deposit a large amount of their energy in the nanometric range, triggered by inner-shell ionization. In water, this can lead to the formation of a doubly ionized water molecule (H2O2+) and the emission of two secondary electrons (photoelectron and Auger electron). Our focus lies on detecting and quantifying the superoxide (HO2°) production via the direct pathway, i.e., from the reaction between the dissociation product of H2O2+, i.e., the oxygen atom (∼4 fs), and the °OH radicals present in the secondary electron tracks. The HO2° yield for 1620 eV photons, via this reaction pathway, was found to be 0.005 (±0.0007) µmol/J (formed within the ∼ps range). Experiments were also performed to determine the yield of HO2° production via another (indirect) pathway, involving solvated electrons. The indirect HO2° yield, measured experimentally as a function of photon energy (from 1700 to 350 eV), resulted in a steep decrease at around 1280 eV and a minimum close to zero at 800 eV. This behavior in contradiction with the theoretical prediction reveals the complexity hidden in the intratrack reactions.

Monte Carlo transport of swift protons and light ions in water: The influence of excitation cross sections, relativistic effects, and Auger electron emission in w-values.

PURPOSE: To develop a particle transport code to compute w-values and stopping power of swift ions in liquid water and gases of interest for reference dosimetry in hadrontherapy. To analyze the relevance of inelastic and post-collisional processes considered. METHODS: The Monte Carlo code MDM was extended to the case of swift ion impact on liquid water (MDM-Ion). Relativistic corrections in the inelastic cross sections and the post-collisional Auger emission were considered. The effects of introducing different electronic excitation cross sections were also studied. RESULTS: The stopping power of swift ions on liquid water, calculated with MDM-Ion, are in excellent agreement with recommended data. The w-values show a strong dependence on the electronic excitation cross sections and on the Auger electron emission. Comparisons with other Monte Carlo codes show the relevance of both the processes considered and of the cross sections employed. W and w-values for swift electron, proton, and carbon ions calculated with the MDM and MDM-Ion codes are in very close agreement with each other and with the 20.8 eV experimental value. CONCLUSION: We found that w-values in liquid water are independent of ion charge and energy, as assumed in reference dosimetry for hadrontherapy from sparse experimental results for electron and ion impact on gases. Excitation cross sections and Auger emission included in Monte Carlo codes are critical in w-values calculations. The computation of this physical parameter should be used as a benchmark for micro-dosimetry investigations, to assess the reliability of the cross sections employed.

Unraveling the Metastability of C n2+ ( n = 2-4) Clusters.

Pure carbon clusters have received considerable attention for a long time. However, fundamental questions, such as what the smallest stable carbon cluster dication is, remain unclear. We investigated the stability and fragmentation behavior of C n2+ ( n = 2-4) dications using state-of-the-art atom probe tomography. These small doubly charged carbon cluster ions were produced by laser-pulsed field evaporation from a tungsten carbide field emitter. Correlation analysis of the fragments detected in coincidence reveals that they only decay to C n-1+ + C+. During C22+ → C+ + C+, significant kinetic energy release (∼5.75-7.8 eV) is evidenced. Through advanced experimental data processing combined with ab initio calculations and simulations, we show that the field-evaporated diatomic 12C22+ dications are either in weakly bound 3Πu and 3Σg- states, quickly dissociating under the intense electric field, or in a deeply bound electronic 5Σu- state with lifetimes >180 ps.