ENERGY AND CHARGE-TRANSFER IN CLUSTERS OF ORGANIC-MOLECULES FOLLOWING RESONANT ELECTRON-CAPTURE

Negative ion formation following resonant electron capture by molecules and molecular aggregates is studied in beam experiments for the prototype systems CF3Cl, CF4 and C2F4. Analysis of the excess kinetic energy of the reaction products is performed in order to observe the change in decomposition dynamics on proceeding from single molecules to clusters. It is shown that electron capture by aggregates may ultimately generate monomeric anions in their relaxed geometries not accessible in the isolated compound. In some cases a relaxation energy of several eV has to be distributed among the target cluster. Fragment ions formed with remarkably high translational energy are effectively slowed down when arising from aggregates at the same attachment energy. Clusters of tetrafluoroethylene show an additional resonance at low attachment energies which exclusively decomposes into (C2F4)n-, n greater-than-or-equal-to 2.