Spectroscopy of Electrons from High-Energy Ion-Atom Collisions

Abstract

Publisher Summary The chapter surveys an important part of the continually growing field of ion-atom collisions— namely, the investigations on electrons from these processes. The chapter discusses the scope and significance of the field. As it is impossible to survey the whole field, the chapter focuses on the light and heavy ion projectiles of higher energy, and on the investigation of the spectra of electrons being emitted from the collision or during the rearrangement in the electron clouds just after the collision. The chapter mentions the advantages of studying electrons from ion-atom collisions, because the techniques of electron spectroscopy are more difficult than those of X-ray spectroscopy in general. The chapter presents a brief survey of the instruments and techniques, as well as the basic concepts of the collision mechanism. To investigate the electrons from ion-atom collisions with high energy projectiles, two instruments are essential. These are the accelerator that provides the beam of projectiles and an electron spectrometer to observe the spectrum of electrons emitted from the individual collision events. The results in the field are treated for projectiles in the intermediate energy region (from about 10 to 100 keV/amu) and for the higher energy (greater than about 100 keV/amu) projectiles are discussed separately.