Theory of dissociative electron attachment: Biomolecules and clusters

Abstract

Very broad σ∗ resonances, which are responsible for threshold structures and dissociative attachment in electron collisions with hydrogen halides, are also important in electron-impact bond-breaking in nucleobases and amino acids. We investigate this mechanism in more detail by carrying out model calculations of the N-H bond breaking in the uracil molecule. Although the σ∗ resonance is extremely broad at the equilibrium nuclear geometry, it is stabilized fast when the N-H bond is stretched, and this produces a substantial dissociative attachment cross section. In addition, very pronounced vibrational Feshbach resonances are seen below vibrational excitation thresholds. To incorporate the effect of a cluster environment in the dissociative electron attachment process, we develop further the multiple scattering theory for this process and calculate the dissociative attachment cross section for the CF3Cl molecule embedded in the (H2O)6 cluster.