Processes and time-scales of energy loss of low-energy electrons (<5 eV) in liquid water

The various processes responsible for the energy degradation and eventual thermalization of low-energy subexcitation electrons (<5 eV) in liquid water are completely delineated for the first time, while previous work assumed the formation of thermalized electrons in the 10−11–10−12 s for liquid water at room temperature. Chief among these are intramolecular vibrational and rotational excitation, dielectric interaction and excitation of intermolecular vibration through H-bond stretching and bending. Cross-sections for these processes are taken from experiments or derived theoretically. Individual time scales are obtained for subexcitational and subvibrational regimes in water at room and higher temperature.