Ab initiostudy of electron capture in low-energy collisions of N4+with hydrogen

Abstract

We present cross sections for the direct charge-transfer process ${\mathrm{N}}^{4+}(2s)+\mathrm{H}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\mathrm{N}}^{3+}{(nl;n}^{\ensuremath{'}}{l}^{\ensuremath{'}})+{\mathrm{H}}^{+}$ for center-of-mass collision energies between 0.1 eV/amu and 8 keV/amu. The results are in good agreement, at low energies, with merged-beams measurements for the total electron-capture cross sections in collisions of ${\mathrm{N}}^{4+}$ with hydrogen and deuterium targets. We also compare the calculated final-state cross sections with the results of recent translational energy spectroscopy measurements. The calculated final-state cross sections show good agreement with the experiment for ion projectile energies up to 8 keV. Our calculations suggest that the total electron-capture cross sections display Langevin behavior for collision energies below 0.4 eV/amu.