Molecular target and projectile angular scattering effects in stopping power and charge exchange at low-to-intermediate projectile energies

Abstract

We analyze the implications of the molecular structure of a target and the angular scattering effects on projectile-target collisions within the Electron-Nuclear Dynamics (END) approach. We show the suitability of the END method for the analysis of molecular scattering processes such as differential cross sections, charge exchange, and energy loss as required for the study of the stopping cross section. As a consequence of these effects, we show that the rovibronic energy loss becomes of greatest importance at low projectile energies. Furthermore, we find that the Bragg additivity rule and the linear-velocity dependence of the stopping cross section are not fulfilled at low projectile energies. Finally, we analyze the differences in the scattering processes for molecular and atomic targets, and show that in a transmission experiment with small exit window, the acceptance angle corresponds to different impact parameter selection for molecular targets than for atomic ones. Thus, the measured stopping cross section becomes a function of the acceptance angle of the experimental setup. We present results for hydrogen beams on ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$ gas targets.