Experimental investigation of effect of low-energy pulsed atmospheric electron beam on bacterial cells

In this paper, the effect of a pulsed low-energy electron beam on bacteria has been explored. The experiment has been carried out using an electron beam with a pulse duration of 5 mu s and an acceleration voltage of 80 kV. It is shown that homogeneous irradiation with an electron beam decontaminates surfaces. Completely Sterilization is achieved at a low concentration of bacteria. With increasing concentration of bacteria or for a wet target, the survivability of a microorganism increases. A spectroscopic experiment and also scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that the low-energy electron beam does not break the outer structure of a bacterial cell and that bacteria inactivation occurs through internal chemical or genetic changes.