Abstract
Extensive results from measurements on short DNA strands impinged on by 1-30 eV electrons indicate that the damage they induce is due to the chemical nature of the nucleic bases and/or their sequence. The strong variation of effective cross sections for plasmid DNA single-strand breaks with incident electron energy and the resonant enhancement at 1 eV suggest that considerable damage is inflicted by very low-energy electrons to DNA, and it indicates the important role of π* shape resonances formed on different constituents of DNA. Recent results of vibrational and electronic excitation of thin condensed films of adenine and thymidine by electrons of energy from 1 to 12 eV are presented.
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