Magnetically Quantized Continuum Distorted Waves

Abstract

The continuum distorted‐wave eikonal initial‐state (CDW‐EIS) theory of Crothers and McCann (1983) used to describe ionization in ion‐atom collisions is generalised (G) to GCDW‐EIS, to incorporate the azimuthal angle dependence of each CDW in the final state wave function. This is accomplished by the analytic continuation of hydrogenic‐like wave functions from below to above threshold, using parabolic coordinates and quantum numbers including magnetic quantum numbers, thus providing a more complete set of states. At impact energies lower than 25 keVu−1, the total ionization cross section falls off, with decreasing energy, too quickly in comparison with experimental data. The idea behind and motivation for the GCDW‐EIS model is to improve the theory with respect to experiment, by including contributions from non‐zero magnetic quantum numbers. We also therefore incidentally provide a new derivation of the theory of continuum distorted waves for zero magnetic quantum numbers while simultaneously generalising it. Comparison of our theoretical calculations are made with available experimental data.