| A distinctive feature of the interaction of molecules and clusters with intense FEL pulses is the capability of the FEL to promote the target system into a highly ionized state well within the pulse duration. Practically, this means that the electronic decay processes induced by the FEL radiation occur in a highly charged environment. In this presentation, I will review our recent theoretical work on the effect of the charged environment on the intra- and inter-atomic decay processes in clusters and molecules. It will be shown that the presence of a neighboring charge can affect the decay rates, sometimes dramatically, through the distortion of atomic orbitals involved in the non-radiative electronic transitions. Moreover, it will be argued that for the processes leading to emission of relatively slow secondary electrons, the mere concept of the exponential decay characterized by a rate may no longer be applicable because of the trapping of the emitted electrons by the neighboring charges. |
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