Transient light emission in slow ion-atom collisions

We solve for the intensity of light emited by the time-dependent dipole formed in slow ion-atom collisions during electron transfer. We describe the time-evolution of electrons in terms of time-dependent molecular orbitals selfconsistently coupled to the trajectories of the nuclei and apply this approach to H+ + H(1s) collisions at low velocities. Light emission in free-to-free transitions is found to last about 10 fs at a Lab collision energy of 10 eV, and about 3 fs at 100 eV, with bands of wavelengths in the near-UV and visible range.