Electronic energy loss of slow projectiles evaluated by molecular orbital theory

Abstract

Based on the Firsov model of electronic excitations in slow atomic collisions, a method for calculations of the electronic energy loss is proposed. In this method, molecular orbital theory is employed in order to obtain the electronic excitation probability of a quasi-molecule between colliding atoms. By this method, the electronic stopping power has been calculated for the case of the Li–B and Li–Ta collision pairs. Using this calculated electronic stopping power, molecular dynamics simulations have been performed in order to analyze the energy loss observed in a recent experiment, in which 1-keV Li + ions were scattered from a TaB 2 (0 0 0 1) surface. These experimental observations are well explained by this theory.