An ab initio study of ion induced charge transfer dynamics in collision of carbon ions with thymine

Charge transfer in collisions of carbon ions on a thymine target has been studied theoretically in a wide collision range by means of ab initio quantum chemistry molecular methods. The process appears markedly anisotropic in the whole energy domain, significantly favoured in the perpendicular orientation. A specific decrease of the charge transfer cross sections at low collision energies may be pointed out and could induce an enhancement of the complementary fragmentation processes for collision energies down to about 10 eV, as observed for the low-electron fragmentation process. Such feature may be of important interest in ion-induced biomolecular radiation damage.