Effects of electron–hole excitations in ion–surface collisions

Abstract

We investigate effects related to electron–hole pair production and atomic level shift in atom scattering at surfaces by using a recently proposed exactly soluble model. We show that electron–hole pair production weakens Stückelberg oscillations and enhances loss of memory of the initial atomic charge state for narrow bands because of the diffusion of an electron or hole captured by the band. Wide band materials tend to display memory loss at lower velocities than do narrow band materials. Allowing the atomic energy level to shift above the Fermi energy tends to reduce memory loss.