Investigating the role of vibrational excitation in simulating charged-particle tracks in liquid pyrimidine

We report on our results of a study into the sensitivity of charged-particle (electron) track simulations in liquid pyrimidine, to the vibrational cross sections and vibrational energy loss distribution function employed in those simulations. We achieve this by repeating the earlier investigation of Fuss et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 117, 214701 (2015)], but now incorporating more accurate data for the vibrational integral cross sections and the energy loss distribution function that have recently become available. We find that while changes in absorbed dose or particle range are quite minor, due to the energy transferred via vibrational excitations being low in comparison to that for other processes such as ionisation, at the very end of the tracks, where non-ionizing interactions dominate, the significantly large numbers of vibrational excitation processes increases the electrons' ability to induce other effects (e.g. sample heating, bond breaking and radical formation) that might cause damage. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]