Capture by Highly-Charged Low-Energy Ions Studied with a Secondary Ion Recoil Source

When a highly-charged fast projectile collides with a neutral atom in a gaseous target it may, in a single collision, remove many electrons from the target while transferring no more than a few eV to the target´s center of mass. These low-energy highly-charged (LEHQ) recoils may be extracted for use as a secondary ion beam to study subsequent capture reactions in a second gas target. We have developed a LEHQ ion source based on this principle, pumped by 1-2 MeV/amu beams of F, S and Cl. In this paper we discuss 1) the properties of the ion source, and 2) cross sections measured with the source for single and multiple electron capture by Ar+q from Ne for 2 < q < 10 and Ar energies between 200 and 1000 eV per q.