title: Electron attenuation in free, neutral ethane clusters.
abstract: The electron effective attenuation length (EAL) in free, neutral ethane clusters has been determined at 40 eV kinetic energy by combining carbon 1s x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical lineshape modeling. More specifically, theory is employed to form model spectra on a grid in cluster size (N) and EAL (λ), allowing N and λ to be determined by optimizing the goodness-of-fit χ(2)(N, λ) between model and observed spectra. Experimentally, the clusters were produced in an adiabatic-expansion setup using helium as the driving gas, spanning a range of 100-600 molecules in mean cluster size. The effective attenuation length was determined to be 8.4 ± 1.9 Å, in good agreement with an independent estimate of 10 Å formed on the basis of molecular electron-scattering data and Monte Carlo simulations. The aggregation state of the clusters as well as the cluster temperature and its importance to the derived EAL value are discussed in some depth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Myrseth
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harnes
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Børve
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D004980:Ethane / Q000737:chemistry*; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D004980:Ethane