Single electron capture cross sections for protons colliding with neon and methane targets: effects of the initial vibrational state of CH4

Abstract

The process of neutralization of ions induced by collisions is crucial to understanding the chemical evolution of interstellar gas. However, the role of the initial vibrational state of the target molecule is not completely understood. In this work, we carry out a combined experimental and theoretical study of the vibrational target effects on the single electron charge exchange cross sections for protons colliding with CH4 in the keV energy region. We complement our study by analyzing the single electron capture from the iso-electronic neon atom to discern similarities and differences. For our experimental study, we use the growth-rate method for the determination of the single electron capture cross section on both systems. For the theoretical study, we use an electron–nuclear dynamics approach for the time evolution of the system wave function to find out the final projectile charge state. We report charge exchange probabilities and cross sections for H+ projectiles when colliding on both targets. We find that these ten-electron systems would have an asymptotically similar charge exchange cross section at high collision energies and would differentiate in the intermediate to low collision energies due to the energetics of the valence electrons and initial vibrational state. In the case of the protons colliding with CH4, we find that it is easier to capture an electron from a CH4 target than from the Ne. Furthermore, we find that low vibrational states have a higher contribution to the electron capture cross section as the collision energy is reduced. We stress the importance of taking into account the initial bending and stretching vibrational modes in the study of the electron capture process. For the neon target, the high ionization potential of the valence electrons produces a smaller charge exchange cross section for low proton collision energies when compared to the CH4 target. We report good comparison to available experimental data. We expect our findings to encourage further theoretical and experimental study of initial vibrational effects at low collision energies to understand the chemical evolution of neutralization processes.