Interaction of Ar17+ ions on metallic surfaces at grazing incidence.

Abstract

The interaction of Ar[sup 17+] ions on metallic surfaces has been studied at various incidence angles by looking at the x rays emitted in flight by the ions with a crystal spectrometer. A model has been developed to describe the behavior of the ions outside the surface, and Dirac-Fock calculations of the Auger rates for states with many electrons in high-[ital n] states have been performed. The formation of [ital hollow] [ital atoms] outside the surface, in high-[ital n] states, has been observed at grazing incidence, in contrast to the hollow atoms formed below the surface in lower-[ital n] states ([ital n]=3--4). The decay to the ground state of these very excited ions outside the surface represents less than 1% of the overall decays.