Experimental studies on the formation of argon atoms in Ar +–atoms collisions

Abstract

The absolute differential and total cross sections for single electron capture by Ar + ions from Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe were measured at energies between 1.0 and 5.0 keV. For all the systems studied in this work, the reduced differential cross sections scale reasonably well with reduced scattering angle and maxima at all the collision energies studied in this work. We deduce, from the experimental differential cross section, that the electron capture channel occurs at a critical projectile-target separation of 3.25 a 0 for Ne; 3.0 a 0 for Kr and 2.89 a 0 for Xe. The total cross sections for single electron capture are compared with previous experimental measurements. These results give a general shape of the whole curve of single electron capture cross sections for the Ar +–Ne, –Ar, –Kr and –Xe systems. Semiempirical calculations are in very good agreement with the present cross section data. It has been found that the dependence of the single electron capture cross section with the nuclear charge of the target atoms is an oscillatory function of the nuclear charge of the target atoms.