Radiation damage to uracil and water by proton and electron impact

Full text: The inelastic interaction of protons (in the energy range from 20 keV to 150 keV) and electrons (from thermal energies up to 20 eV) with water and uracil, the latter a building block of the RNA has been studied in two laboratories with specially designed experimental setups. These measurements are motivated from a present lack of understanding how on a molecular level damage to living cells and organisms is caused. A unique way of simultaneous detection of the product ions after swift proton (or hydrogen) impact and the analysis of the charge state of the projectile after the collision allows to distinguish between direct ionization (e.g., projectile remains a proton) and electron capture events (e.g., proton becomes neutralized). The latter process turns out to be more destructive, i.e. leads to a higher yield of fragmentation. For electrons both the formation of positively and negatively charged ions has been investigated. We discovered that already thermal electrons lead with a rather large cross section to a dissociation of the uracil molecule producing an anion and a fast hydrogen radical. (author)