Measurement of the Charge Exchange Cross Section for N7+, O7+ Ions in Collision with Atomic H

Abstract

The absolute total cross sections for the charge exchange between highly charged ions 15N7+, O7+, and atomic H have been measured with the ion-atom merged-beams apparatus at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The collision energy range is from 1224 down to 2 eV u−1, which covers outflowing hot components of astrophysical charge exchange plasmas like stellar-wind and supernova remnants. Good agreement with the previous measurements and theory is found for the collision energies above 100 eV u−1, while below 100 eV u−1 limited agreement is achieved with the available calculations. These cross-section data are useful for modeling X-ray emission resulting from the charge exchange at the interface of hot plasma interacting with ambient neutral gas.