RESUMO
The PELIICAEN (Platform for the Study of Ion Implantation Controlled and Analyzed at the Nanometric Scale) setup is a unique device, both for all of its in situ ultra-high vacuum equipment (focused ion beam column, secondary electron microscope, atomic force microscope, and scanning tunneling microscope) and for its nanostructuration performances on materials. The setup has been recently equipped with its own electron cyclotron resonance ion sources, a new position-controlled platform using pneumatic vibration insulators, and a fast pulsing device. Its performances were then deeply improved, providing access to a large choice of ions, an adjustable ion implantation depth up to a few hundred nanometers, an image resolution down to 25 nm, and an ion beam size on the sample down to 100 nm. With all this equipment, the PELIICAEN setup is in the international foreground to perform and analyze ion implantation and surface modification.
RESUMO
Van der Waals clusters are weakly bound atomic/molecular systems and are an important medium for understanding micro-environmental chemical phenomena in bio-systems. The presence of neighboring atoms may open channels otherwise forbidden in isolated atoms/molecules. In hydrogen-bond clusters, proton transfer plays a crucial role, which involves mass and charge migration over large distances within the cluster and results in its fragmentation. Here we report an exotic transfer channel involving a heavy N+ ion observed in a doubly charged cluster produced by 1 MeV Ne8+ ions: (N2Ar)2+âN++NAr+. The neighboring Ar atom decreases the [Formula: see text] barrier height and width, resulting in significant shorter lifetimes of the metastable molecular ion state [Formula: see text]([Formula: see text]). Consequently, the breakup of the covalent N+-N+ bond, the tunneling out of the N+ ion from the [Formula: see text] potential well, as well as the formation of an N-Ar+ bound system take place almost simultaneously, resulting in a Coulomb explosion of N+ and NAr+ ion pairs.
RESUMO
The four DNA nucleosides guanosine, adenosine, cytidine and thymidine have been produced in the gas phase by a laser thermal desorption source, and irradiated by a beam of protons with 5 keV kinetic energy. The molecular ions as well as energetic neutrals formed have been analyzed by mass spectrometry in order to shed light on the ionization and fragmentation processes triggered by proton collision. A range of 8-20 eV has been estimated for the binding energy of the electron captured by the proton. Glycosidic bond cleavage between the base and sugar has been observed with a high probability for all nucleosides, resulting in predominantly intact base ions for guanosine, adenosine, and cytidine but not for thymidine where intact sugar ions are dominant. This behavior is influenced by the ionization energies of the nucleobases (G < A < C < T), which seems to determine the localization of the charge following the initial ionization. This charge transfer process can also be inferred from the production of protonated base ions, which have a similar dependence on the base ionization potential, although the base proton affinity might also play a role. Other dissociation pathways have also been identified, including further fragmentation of the base and sugar moieties for thymidine and guanosine, respectively, and partial breakup of the sugar ring without glycosidic bond cleavage mainly for adenosine and cytidine. These results show that charge localization following ionization by proton irradiation is important in determining dissociation channels of isolated nucleosides, which could in turn influence direct radiation damage in DNA.
