Simultaneous Electron Capture and Excitation in Ion-Atom Collisions

A review of recent efforts to observe simultaneous electron capture-and-K-shell excitation in ion-atom collisions is presented. This process which has been referred to as resonant-transfer-and-excitation (RTE), is qualitatively analogous to dielectronic recombination (inverse Auger transition) in free-electron-ion collisions, and, hence, is expected to be resonant. Experimentally, events having the correct signature for simultaneous capture-and-excitation are isolated by detecting projectile K x rays in coincidence with ions which capture a single electron. In a recent experiment involving 70-160 MeV S13+ ions incident on Ar, a maximum was observed in the yield of projectile K x rays associated with electron capture. This maximum is attributed to simultaneous capture-and excitation. The position (120 MeV) and width (60 MeV) of the observed maximum are in good agreement with theoretical calculations. The data indicate that RTE is an important mechanism for inner-shell vacancy production in the energy range studied.