Cations Strongly Reduce Electron-Hopping Rates in Aqueous Solutions
We study how the ultrafast intermolecular hopping of electrons excited from the water O1s core level into unoccupied orbitals depends on the local molecular environment in liquid water. Our probe is the resonant Auger decay of the water O1s core hole (lifetime similar to 3.6 fs), by which we show that the electron-hopping rate can be significantly reduced when a first-shell water molecule is repla