The effect of charge state on electron excitation by slow protons in simple metal

Abstract

We investigate the energy and angular distributions of conduction band electrons excited by slowly moving protons. An improved method for the description of target response was developed assuming a convenient spherical symmetry of the screened potential. The velocity dependent screening parameter of the trial potential is adjusted in a self-consistent way using an extension of the Friedel sum rule.As positive projectile can be ionized or neutralized by interaction with the target, we should include the different charge states fractions of the protons to determine the doubly differential cross section (DDCS) for the secondary electron emission. A comparison of the double differential cross section using the Density Functional Theory (DFT) is presented. The energy loss of moving proton is also discussed with explicit inclusion of the different charge states and compared to the available experimental data in order to check the validity of the proposed model.