Absolute cross sections of positive- and negative-ion production in electron collision with cytosine molecules

Production of positive and negative ions of cytosine molecules (nucleic acid base) has been studied using a crossed electron and molecular beam technique. The method developed by the authors enabled the molecular beam intensity to be measured and the electron dependences and the absolute values of the total cross sections of production of both positive and negative cytosine ions to be determined. It has been shown that the total positive cytosine ion production cross section reaches its maximal value of 7.8 × 10 −16 cm 2 at the 78 eV electron energy. Dissociative ionization cross sections have also been determined. The maximum total negative cytosine ion production cross section was measured to be 4.2 × 10 −18 cm 2 at 1.5 eV.