The efficiency of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in Ne clusters

In this article, we demonstrate that Interatomic Coulombic Decay (ICD) is the dominant relaxation channel of Ne 2s inner valence vacancies in free Ne clusters, with an efficiency close to 100%. ICD designates a novel autoionization process of a vacancy in a weakly bonded atomic or molecular cluster. Its main characteristic is the release of an electron from a site different than the original vacancy, which is mediated by ultrafast energy transfer. Results are shown for cluster sizes between approx. 50-600 atoms. A trend towards apparently increased efficiency for larger clusters may result from inelastic scattering processes inside the cluster.