Radiation damage in biological material: electronic properties and electron impact ionization in urea

Abstract

Radiation damage is an unavoidable process when performing structural investigations of biological macromolecules with X-ray sources. In crystallography this process can be limited through damage distribution in a crystal, while for single molecular imaging it can be outrun by employing short intense pulses. Secondary electron generation is crucial during damage formation and we present a study in urea, as model for biomaterial. From first principles we calculate the band structure and energy loss function, and subsequently the inelastic electron cross section in urea. Using Molecular Dynamics simulations, we quantify the damage and study the magnitude and spatial extent of the electron cloud coming from an incident electron, as well as the dependence with initial energy.

6 pages, 5 figures. Several major modifications. Revised version as accepted in EPL. Corrected figures 4 and 5, corresponding to published erratum

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Determination of multiwavelength anomalous diffraction coefficients at high x-ray intensity
• Femtosecond reduction of atomic scattering factors triggered by intense x-ray pulse
• Twisted electron impact single ionization coincidence cross-sections for noble gas atoms
• On the feasibility of nanocrystal imaging using intense and ultrashort 1.5 Å X-ray pulses
• Single molecule imaging with longer x-ray laser pulses