State selective Rydberg charge transfer and ionization in low energy ion–atom collisions

Abstract

The Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) simulation method with a core modified interaction potential has been used to study the single charge transfer in Na +and Ar + ions colliding with a variety of state selected Na Rydberg atom targets ( n=24, 28, 33, 40 and l=2) in the reduced velocity region v=0.2–2.0. The experimentally observed structures in the total capture cross section versus reduced velocity curves are reproduced by CTMC method. The n-distribution of final capture state has got two peaks viz. first one at n f= n i and the second one at a higher n f depending on the initial angular momentum in the velocity regime 0.4–0.6. These structures have been explained in terms of quasimolecular-ion formation and a classical model proposed by Roy et al. (B.N. Roy, D.N. Tripathi, D.K. Rai, Phys. Rev. A 5 (1972) 1252). The CTMC ionization cross section results are benchmarked with the recent experimental measurement of Makarov et al. (O.P. Makarov, D.M. Homan, O.P. Sorokina, K.B. MacAdam, in: F. Aumayr, G. Betz, H.P. Winter (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on the Physics of Electronics and Atomic Collisions, Vienna, 1997, p. FR052) for Na +–Na(24 d).