title: Interatomic Coulombic decay cascades in multiply excited neon clusters.
abstract: In high-intensity laser light, matter can be ionized by direct multiphoton absorption even at photon energies below the ionization threshold. However on tuning the laser to the lowest resonant transition, the system becomes multiply excited, and more efficient, indirect ionization pathways become operative. These mechanisms are known as interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD), where one of the species de-excites to its ground state, transferring its energy to ionize another excited species. Here we show that on tuning to a higher resonant transition, a previously unknown type of interatomic Coulombic decay, intra-Rydberg ICD occurs. In it, de-excitation of an atom to a close-lying Rydberg state leads to electron emission from another neighbouring Rydberg atom. Moreover, systems multiply excited to higher Rydberg states will decay by a cascade of such processes, producing even more ions. The intra-Rydberg ICD and cascades are expected to be ubiquitous in weakly-bound systems exposed to high-intensity resonant radiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto, Japan.|RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 679-5148 Hyogo, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagaya
authors.affiliation: Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 980-8577 Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Iablonskyi
authors.affiliation: Theoretische Chemie, Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: N V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Golubev
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsunami
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 679-5148 Hyogo, Japan.|Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 980-8577 Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuzawa
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 679-5148 Hyogo, Japan.|Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 980-8577 Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Motomura
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishiyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.affiliation: Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 980-8577 Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tachibana
authors.affiliation: Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 980-8577 Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mondal
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 679-5148 Hyogo, Japan.|Department of Physical Science, Hiroshima University, 739-8526 Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.affiliation: Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste, Basovizza, Trieste I-34149, Italy.
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Prince
authors.affiliation: Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste, Basovizza, Trieste I-34149, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5491-7752
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Callegari
authors.affiliation: Synchrotron SOLEIL, L'Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, BP 48, FR-91192 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.|Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP), 'Horia Hulubei' National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, RO-077125 Măgurele, Jud. Ilfov, Romania.
authors.forename: C
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8302-7158
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miron
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 679-5148 Hyogo, Japan.|National Metrology Institute of Japan, AIST, 305-8568 Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 679-5148 Hyogo, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2472-1684
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yabashi
authors.affiliation: Theoretische Atom- und Molekülphysik, Institut für Physik und CINSaT, Universität Kassel, D-34132 Kassel, Germany.
authors.forename: Ph V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Demekhin
authors.affiliation: Theoretische Chemie, Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Cederbaum
authors.affiliation: Theoretische Chemie, Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Kuleff
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, 606-8502 Kyoto, Japan.|Deceased.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 679-5148 Hyogo, Japan.|Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 980-8577 Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ueda