Our research focus is the breakup of atoms and molecules induced through electron impact. This process is of great interest due to its role in environmental processes and in operation of many devices of technological importance. Examples include the physics and chemistry of the upper atmosphere, radiation damage in biological materials, gas-discharge light sources and the plasma deposition of thin films.

The special aspect of our experimental approach is that we identify single collisions by performing experiments in which the energies and momenta of all reaction participants and products are determined. Charged particles resulting from individual fragmentation “showers” are identified through their correlated arrival times at a picosecond-resolution time-and-position-sensitive detectors. Furthermore, our technology allows us to prepare atomic targets and electron beams in spin-polarized quantum states, thereby enabling disentanglement of the roles played by electron exchange- and relativistic-effects in the fragmentation process. More details