On the treatment of light-ion electronic stopping in dense matter

Abstract

A review is given on single-electron mechanisms and the corresponding theoretical approaches describing the electronic energy-transfer processes of light ions in gases and solids. Special emphasis is given to a discussion on the connection between exact Bloch-wave treatments and free-atom approximations. In the case of solids, perturbation theory is applied to the stopping of low-energy ions in the alkaline metals Li and Na. These calculations include Bloch wavefunctions of the Wigner-Seitz type obtained from a Hartree-Fock-Slater calculation and allow for a prediction of the mean energy loss under channeling conditions. Results of the most widely used local-density approximation are compared to data of our more complete perturbative treatment. Comparison is also made with recent LCAO calculations.