Energy loss studies of protons colliding with ethane: preliminary results

Abstract

This paper reports theoretical calculations for projectile kinetic energy loss and stopping power of protons colliding with C 2H 6, for projectile energies of a few eV up to 25 keV. The many body character of the system and the strong coupling of the electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom make this system suitable for study using electron–nuclear dynamics. We report the stopping cross section as well as the electron capture cross section as a function of the projectile kinetic energy. We find that chemical dissociation plays an important role in charge exchange due to the bond breaking during the collision. We also obtain the stopping cross section using Bragg’s rule in order to analyze chemical effects (bond contributions). Finally, comparison to the available experimental data is provided.