Electronic excitation in anAr7+ion traversing a graphene sheet: Molecular dynamics simulations

Abstract

We studied the interaction between an ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{7+}$ ion and a graphene sheet by combining real-time propagation of electron wave functions with molecular dynamics simulations. Our calculation supports the fluorescence from ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{7+}$ ions penetrating the carbon foil [S. Bashkin et al., Phys. Rev. A 25, 417 (1982)], and it suggests that this fluorescence also occurs even when the thickness of the target is only the monatomic layer and when the incident kinetic energy corresponds to $500\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{keV}$. Monitoring the fluorescence is a useful way to detect graphene sheets even with monatomic thickness.