Two-Electron Processes in Relativistic Collisions of He-Like Uranium with Gaseous Targets

Abstract

The simultaneous excitation-ionization and excitation-capture processes in collisions of 223 MeV/u He-like uranium ions with heavy target atoms are identified by measuring the x-ray (L → K) transitions in coincidence with projectiles undergoing charge exchange. The state selective cross sections for the population of the L-shell sub-levels of the projectile are determined, and in the case of excitation-ionization data compared to the detailed relativistic calculations. It is emphasized that the experimental data can serve as an important benchmark of the independent particle approximation and fully relativistic perturbative models, for the domain of relativistic ion-atom collisions.