288 research outputs found
Simulation of the thermally induced austenitic phase transition in NiTi nanoparticles
The reverse martensitic ("austenitic") transformation upon heating of
equiatomic nickel-titanium nanoparticles with diameters between 4 and 17 nm is
analyzed by means of molecular-dynamics simulations with a semi-empirical model
potential. After constructing an appropriate order parameter to distinguish
locally between the monoclinic B19' at low and the cubic B2 structure at high
temperatures, the process of the phase transition is visualized. This shows a
heterogeneous nucleation of austenite at the surface of the particles, which
propagates to the interior by plane sliding, explaining a difference in
austenite start and end temperatures. Their absolute values and dependence on
particle diameter are obtained and related to calculations of the surface
induced size dependence of the difference in free energy between austenite and
martensite.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in "The European
Physical Journal B
Ion impact induced Interatomic Coulombic Decay in neon and argon dimers
We investigate the contribution of Interatomic Coulombic Decay induced by ion
impact in neon and argon dimers (Ne and Ar) to the production of low
energy electrons. Our experiments cover a broad range of perturbation strengths
and reaction channels. We use 11.37 MeV/u S, 0.125 MeV/u He,
0.1625 MeV/u He and 0.150 MeV/u He as projectiles and study
ionization, single and double electron transfer to the projectile as well as
projectile electron loss processes. The application of a COLTRIMS reaction
microscope enables us to retrieve the three-dimensional momentum vectors of the
ion pairs of the fragmenting dimer into Ne/Ne and
Ar/Ar (q = 1, 2, 3) in coincidence with at least one emitted
electron
Interatomic-Coulombic-decay-induced recapture of photoelectrons in helium dimers
We investigate the onset of photoionization shakeup induced interatomic
Coulombic decay (ICD) in He2 at the He+*(n = 2) threshold by detecting two He+
ions in coincidence. We find this threshold to be shifted towards higher
energies compared to the same threshold in the monomer. The shifted onset of
ion pairs created by ICD is attributed to a recapture of the threshold
photoelectron after the emission of the faster ICD electron.Comment: 5 Pages, 2 Figure
Vibrationally Resolved Decay Width of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in HeNe
We investigate the ionization of HeNe from below the He 1s3p excitation to
the He ionization threshold. We observe HeNe ions with an enhancement by
more than a factor of 60 when the He side couples resonantly to the radiation
field. These ions are an experimental proof of a two-center resonant
photoionization mechanism predicted by Najjari et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105,
153002 (2010)]. Furthermore, our data provide electronic and vibrational state
resolved decay widths of interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) in HeNe dimers. We
find that the ICD lifetime strongly increases with increasing vibrational
state.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
A measurement of the evolution of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in the time domain
During the last 15 years a novel decay mechanism of excited atoms has been
discovered and investigated. This so called ''Interatomic Coulombic Decay''
(ICD) involves the chemical environment of the electronically excited atom: the
excitation energy is transferred (in many cases over long distances) to a
neighbor of the initially excited particle usually ionizing that neighbor. It
turned out that ICD is a very common decay route in nature as it occurs across
van-der-Waals and hydrogen bonds. The time evolution of ICD is predicted to be
highly complex, as its efficiency strongly depends on the distance of the atoms
involved and this distance typically changes during the decay. Here we present
the first direct measurement of the temporal evolution of ICD using a novel
experimental approach.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Two-particle interference of electron pairs on a molecular level
We investigate the photo-doubleionization of molecules with 400 eV
photons. We find that the emitted electrons do not show any sign of two-center
interference fringes in their angular emission distributions if considered
separately. In contrast, the quasi-particle consisting of both electrons (i.e.
the "dielectron") does. The work highlights the fact that non-local effects are
embedded everywhere in nature where many-particle processes are involved
Determination of the He-He, Ne-Ne, Ar-Ar, and H interaction potential by wave function imaging
We report on a direct method to measure the internuclear potential energy
curve of diatomic systems. A COLTRIMS reaction microscope was used to measure
the squares of the vibrational wave functions of H, He, Ne,
and Ar. The Schr\"odinger equation relates the curvature of the wave
function to the potential V(R) and therefore offers a simple but elegant way to
extract the shape of the potential.Comment: 15 pages with 4 figure
Ejection of quasi-free electron pairs from the helium atom ground state by single photon absorption
We investigate single photon double ionization (PDI) of helium at photon
energies of 440 and 800 eV. We observe doubly charged ions with close to zero
momentum corresponding to electrons emitted back-to-back with equal energy.
These slow ions are the unique fingerprint of an elusive quasi-free PDI
mechanism predicted by Amusia et al. nearly four decades years ago [J. Phys. B
8, 1248, (1975)] . It results from the non-dipole part of the electromagnetic
interaction. Our experimental data are in excellent agreement with calculations
performed using the convergent close coupling and time dependent close coupling
methods
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