Full Dynamical and Ab Initio Investigation of the Electron Transfer-Mediated Decay Mechanism of He+ in the Presence of Heavier Alkali Dimers.

Abstract

We have studied the electron transfer-mediated decay (ETMD) process for the 1s ionized state of the He atom in the presence of a heavier alkali homonuclear dimer (Na2, K2, and Rb2) as well as heteronuclear dimer (LiNa, NaK, and KRb). In our computation, we have considered all the alkali dimers being in the singlet electronic ground state. The electron transfer from the alkali dimer to He (1s-1) leads to the emission of another electron from the alkali dimer into the continuum. We have investigated the impact of the distance of the He atom from the center of mass of the alkali dimer on the ETMD decay width. We also performed the Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulation to understand the impact of nuclear dynamics on the ETMD process.