Interatomic Coulombic decay and its dynamics in NeAr following K-LL Auger transition in the Ne atom

Abstract

We analyze in detail the accessible relaxation pathways via electron emission of the Ne2+Ar states populated via the K-LL Auger decay of Ne+(1s−1)Ar. In particular, we concentrate on the “direct” interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) of the Ne2+(2s−12p−1)Ar weakly bound doubly ionized states into the manifold of the Ne2+(2p−2)–Ar+(3p−1) repulsive triply ionized ones. To carry out the present study the potential energy curves of the NeAr ground state, the core ionized state Ne+(1s−1)Ar, the relevant dicationic and tricationic states, and the corresponding ICD transition rates have been computed using accurate ab initio methods and basis sets. The total and partial ICD electron spectra are computed within the framework of the time-dependent theory of wave packet propagation. Thereby, the impact of nuclear dynamics accompanying the electronic decay on the computed ICD-electron spectra is investigated in detail.