Transient charge-state effect in the energy loss of swift molecular ions in solids

Abstract

The energy loss of the fragments resulting from the dissociation of fast ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}^{+}$ molecular ions when traversing amorphous carbon foils has been calculated. In addition to using the dielectric formalism to describe the electronic excitations of the stopping medium and the Coulomb repulsion to account for the variation of internuclear distances, we have also taken into account the transient charge states of each fragment. The inclusion of this effect was crucial in order to obtain a satisfactory comparison of our calculations with the available experimental data.