ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the fragmentation of molecules upon their interaction with low-energy electrons, and focuses on the dissociative electron attachment (DEA) process—a process where a temporarily captured electron effectuates nuclear displacement to an extent that leads to molecular fragmentation. It discusses a general overview of the DEA process, followed by a discussion of the bond selectivity of this process, its efficiency, the nature of the resonances formed, and the angular dependence of their formation, as well as the thermochemistry of their decay through molecular fragmentation. In electron attachment and DEA, the central characteristic quantity is the cross section and the rate constant for the individual processes. In crossed-beam experiments, an electron beam with a finite energy resolution is crossed with a beam of the target molecules, usually under single-collision conditions. Crossed-beam experiments generally have the same principal components, that is, an electron source, a target gas beam, ion extraction optics, mass selection, and detection.
