Sequential Penning Ionization: Harvesting Energy with Ions

We report the observation of the ejection of electrons caused by collisions of excited atoms with ions, rather than neutrals, leading to the production of doubly charged ions. Doping superfluid He droplets with methyl iodide and exposing them to electrons enhances the formation of doubly charged iodine atoms at the threshold for the production of two metastable He atoms. These observations point toward a novel ionization process where doubly charged ions are produced by sequential Penning ionization. In some cases, depending on the neutral target, the process also leads to a subsequent Coulomb explosion of the dopant.