The Role of the Partner Atom and Resonant Excitation Energy in Interatomic Coulombic Decay in Rare Gas Dimers

We provide experimental evidence for interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) in mixed rare gas dimers following resonant Auger decay. A velocity map imaging apparatus together with a cooled supersonic beam containing Ar2 and NeAr dimers was used to record the energy and angular distributions of electrons in coincidence with two mass selected ions following the excitation of a number of resonances converging to the Ar 2p3/2–1 threshold using synchrotron radiation. It is shown that the ICD process can be controlled by the choice of the partner atom in the dimer or of the resonance that triggers the resonant Auger decay