Quasiclassical expression for inelastic energy losses in atomic particle collisions below the Bohr velocity

Journal Article · Sat Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1995 · Physical Review A; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.51.3058· OSTI ID:6544666

Tilinin, I S ^[1]

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1. Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, ulica Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw (Poland)

A quasiclassical formula for inelastic energy losses in collisions of slow ions and atoms has been derived. The electronic stopping power is assumed to be due to a momentum transfer during scattering of the target atom's electrons in the screened Coulomb field of the projectile and vice versa. The Coulomb repulsion between the nuclei of colliding particles is shown to decrease greatly the electronic stopping in the limiting case of small, reduced energies, [ital E][much lt]1. This leads to inelastic energy losses being no longer linearly dependent on the particle velocity, as predicted by the linear-response theory. The latter effect explains the experimentally observed strong dependence of the kinetic electron emission well below the threshold on the energy of ions bombarding a solid surface. At relatively large energies ([ital E][gt]1) the expression obtained reduces to the result found earlier by Lindhard and Scharff [Phys. Rev. 124, 128 (1961)]. The total energy losses of slow atoms calculated on the basis of the formula derived for the inelastic stopping power and the expression for the elastic energy losses available in the literature are in good agreement with the experimental data.

• OSTI ID: 6544666
• Journal Information: Physical Review A; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review A; (United States) Vol. 50:4; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

664300* -- Atomic & Molecular Physics-- Collision Phenomena-- (1992-)
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOM COLLISIONS
COLLISIONS
COULOMB FIELD
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRON GAS
ENERGY LOSSES
FLUIDS
GASES
INELASTIC SCATTERING
ION COLLISIONS
ION-ATOM COLLISIONS
LOSSES
SCATTERING
SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATION
STOPPING POWER