The influence of inner-shell electron promotion on charge exchange processes in low energy ion scattering from surfaces

Abstract

The influence of inner-shell electron promotion on charge exchange in low energy (1–7 keV) Ne + ions scattered from the Cu (1 0 0), Ni (1 0 0) and Fe (1 1 0) surfaces has been studied systematically. The yield of Ne + ion scattered from these surfaces has been measured as a function of incident ion energy under various scattering geometries. The relative Ne + ion fraction, which is proportional to the normalised ion yield divided by the differential scattering cross section, is studied and an empirical formula for relative ion fraction has been extracted. The formula combines the charge exchanges along the incoming trajectory, during the close encounter, and along the outgoing trajectory into one simple expression. It can be concluded that inner-shell electron excitations during close encounters contribute significantly to the charge exchange in the scattering systems studied in this work.