9510383 Baragiola This project is a university-industry investigation of the evolution of electronic excitations in insulators. The excitations are formed in single events by energetic UV photons and electrons, and in dense cascades induced by keV and MeV ions. The goal is to understand the dynamics of energy transport in the form of holes, excitons and excited electrons in the femtosecond to nanosecond time scale, and to understand the mechanisms for converting the electronic energy in atomic motion (molecular dissociation, formation of new molecules, the ejection of particles from the surface, and creation of stable defects and phonons). The strategy is to study condensed gases as model systems, for which basic cross sections are well known. The research involves a collaboration with scientists from Bell Labs and the Univ. of Uppsala. It combines experiments that detect the ejected atoms, molecules, electrons, ions, and photons, and changes in the bombarded solids, together with molecular dynamics simulations. %%% This project is a university-industry investigation of the processes of energy dissipation in solids which are bombarded by energetic particles or ultraviolet light. The goal is to understand how energy flows into different channels, like emission of light or damage of the material, that will allow to find ways to modify the behavior. The research has applications in many areas, like radiation effects in biological tissue, lithography for manufacturing microelectronic circuits, radiation detectors and future generations of flat panel displays and lasers in the far ultraviolet. The studies incorporate laboratory work and computer simulations. ***
