A quasi classical approximation to quantum mechanical scattering in the Moeller formalism is developed. While keeping the numerical advantage of a standard Classical--Trajectory--Monte--Carlo calculation, our approach is no longer restricted to use stationary initial distributions. This allows one to improve the results by using better suited initial phase space distributions than the microcanonical one and to gain insight into the collision mechanism by studying the influence of different initial distributions on the cross section. A comprehensive account of results for single, double and triple differential cross sections for atomic hydrogen will be given, in comparison with experiment and other theories.
Electron-impact direct double ionization (DDI) process is studied as a sequence of two and three step processes. Contribution from ionization-ionization, ionization-excitation-ionization, and excitation-ionization-ionization processes is taken into account. The present results help to resolve the long-standing discrepancies; in particular, a good agreement with experimental measurements is obtained for double ionization cross-sections of $O^{1+}$, $O^{2+}$, $O^{3+}$, $C^{1+}$, and $Ar^{2+}$ ions. We show that distribution of the energy of scattered and ejected electrons, which participate in t…
We study double ionization of Mg by electron impact through the vantage point of classical mechanics. We consider all electron-electron correlations in a Coulomb four-body problem, where three electrons belong to the atom and the fourth electron causes the impact ionization. From our model we compute the double-ionization probability of Mg for impact energies from 15, to 125 eV. Double ionization occurs through eight double-ionization mechanisms, which we classify into four categories: inner shell capture, direct, delay and ionized inner shell mechanisms. We show that delay and ionized inner s…
We present total cross sections for single and double ionization of helium by antiproton impact over a wide range of impact energies from 10 keV/amu to 1 MeV/amu. A non-perturbative time-dependent close-coupling method (TDCC) is applied to fully treat the correlated dynamics of the ionized electrons. Excellent agreement is obtained between our calculations and experimental measurements of total single and double ionization cross sections at high impact energies, whereas for lower impact energies, some discrepancies with experiment are found. At an impact energy of 1 MeV we also find that the d…
A fully classical explanation of the nonhydrogenic ionization threshold for low angular momentum Rydberg states of Alkali-metal atoms in a linearly polarized low frequency monochromatic microwave field is given: the classical equivalent to the quantum rate-limiting step, which is responsible for the n^(-5) scaling and which according to the literature initiates what then continues as essentially classical diffusion, is found.
Target ionization processes of alkali atoms by Positronium impact are investigated. Calculations are performed in the frame work of model potential formalism using the Coulomb distorted eikonal approximation. Interesting qualitative features are noted both in the scattered Ps and the ejected electron distributions in differential as well as double differential levels of the collision cross sections.
Tables of ab-initio total cross sections, probabilities at zero impact parameter, and impact parameter moments are presented concerning the ionization of Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe by proton impact in the energy range (0.1-10) MeV. Calculations correspond to the continuum distorted wave eikonal initial state approximation (CDW-EIS) for energies up to 1MeV, and to the first Born approximation for larger energies. Results displayed in the tables are disaggregated for the different initial bound states, considering all shells for Ne and Ar, L-M-N shells of Kr and M-N-O shells of Xe. Our inner-shell ioniz…
The electron impact ionization of atomic hydrogen is calculated for incident elrctron energy 76.46 eV. The Hartree-Fock approximation is used to calculate the initial state which includes both bound and continum wave functions. The final state continuum electron wave functions are obtained in the potential of hydrogen ion. The interaction between the two final state continuum electrons is approximated with the screening potential determined variationally.
A classical approximation to time dependent quantum mechanical scattering in the Møller formalism is presented. Numerically, our approach is similar to a standard Classical-Trajectory-Monte-Carlo calculation. Conceptually, however, our formulation allows one to release the restriction to stationary initial distributions. This is achieved by a classical forward-backward propagation technique. As a first application and for comparison with experiment we present fully differential cross sections for electron impact ionization of atomic hydrogen in the Erhardt geometry.
Electron-impact ionization of an atom or ion in the presence of a neighboring atom is studied. The latter is first collisionally excited by the incident electron, whose energy is assumed to be high but nonrelativistic. Afterwards, the excitation energy is transferred radiationlessly via a two-center Auger process to the other atom or ion, leading to its ionization. We show that the participation of the neighboring atom manifests in a very pronounced resonance peak in the energy-differential cross section and can substantially enhance the total cross section of electron-impact ionization. We al…
In this work our previous fully differential ionization cross section calculations using the semiclassical, impact parameter method are improved by a new method suitable to calculate impact parameter values corresponding to different momentum transfers. This goal is achieved by two successive steps. First, using the transverse momentum balance different projectile scattering angles are calculated for the binary and recoil peak regions as a function of the transferred momentum. Then, by treating the projectile scattering as a classical potential scattering problem, impact parameters are assigne…
The beginning of the application of the method of interacting configurations in the complex number representation to the compound atomic systems has been presented. The spectroscopic characteristics of the Be atom in the problem of the electron-impact ionization of this atom are investigated. The energies and the widths of the lowest autoionizing states of Be atom are calculated.
Theoretical expressions for ionization cross sections by electron impact based on the binary encounter Bethe (BEB) model, valid from ionization threshold up to relativistic energies, are proposed. The new modified BEB (MBEB) and its relativistic counterpart (MRBEB) expressions are simpler than the BEB (nonrelativistic and relativistic) expressions because they require only one atomic parameter, namely the binding energy of the electrons to be ionized, and use only one scaling term for the ionization of all sub-shells. The new models are used to calculate the K-, L- and M-shell ionization cross…
Electron-impact ionization of lithium is studied using the convergent close-coupling (CCC) method at 25.4 and 54.4 eV. Particular attention is paid to the spin-dependence of the ionization cross sections. Convergence is found to be more rapid for the spin asymmetries, which are in good agreement with experiment, than for the underlying cross sections. Comparison with the recent measured and DS3C-calculated data of Streun et al (1999) is most intriguing. Excellent agreement is found with the measured and calculated spin asymmetries, yet the discrepancy between the CCC and DS3C cross sections is…
It is shown that recently measured cross sections for double ionization of negative ions ($H^-, O^-$, and $C^-$) possess a universal shape when plotted in suitable dimensionless units. The shape can be represented with a simple analytical function, following the same principles as it has been done in establishing a universal shape function for single ionization [Rost and Pattard 1997 Phys. Rev. A {\bf 55} R5]. Thereby, it is demonstrated that direct double ionization dominates the cross section for the targets considered.
We have investigated the universal scaling behavior of differential cross sections for the single K-shell ionization by electron or positron impact. The study is performed within the framework of non-relativistic perturbation theory, taking into account the one-photon exchange diagrams. In the case of low-energy positron scattering, the doubly differential cross section exhibits prominent interference oscillations. The results obtained are valid for arbitrary atomic targets with moderate values of nuclear charge number Z.
Electron-impact ionization cross sections for the 1s2s 1S and 1s2s 3S metastable states of Li+ are calculated using both perturbative distorted-wave and non-perturbative close-coupling methods. Term-resolved distorted-wave calculations are found to be approximately 15% above term-resolved R-matrix with pseudostates calculations. On the other hand, configuration-average time-dependent close-coupling calculations are found to be in excellent agreement with the configuration-average R-matrix with pseudostates calculations. The non-perturbative R-matrix and close-coupling calculations provide a be…
We have implemented the paraxial approximation followed by the time-dependent Hartree-Fock method with frozen core for the single impact ionization of atoms and two-atomic molecules. It reduces the original scattering problem to the five-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation solution. By using this method we calculated the multi-fold differential cross section of the impact single ionization of the helium atom, the hydrogen molecule and the nitrogen molecule by the intermediate energy electrons. Our results for the helium and the hydrogen are quite close to experimental data, but for…
The calculated double differential cross sections for 60eV energy, where the cross sections are also maximum, agree with the measured results of Shyn (1992) in a much better way compaired to other theories for such energies.
We report measurements of electron impact ionization (EII) for Fe^13+, Fe^16+, and Fe^17+ over collision energies from below threshold to above 3000 eV. The ions were recirculated using an ion storage ring. Data were collected after a sufficiently long time that essentially all the ions had relaxed radiatively to their ground state before data were collected. For single ionization of $\fethirteen$ we find that previous single pass experiments are more than 40% larger than our results. Compared to our work, the theoretical cross section recommended by Arnaud & Raymond (1992) is more than 30% la…
In this paper we present Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) calculations for single and multiple electron ionization of Argon atoms and ions in the threshold region. We are able to recover the Wannier exponents a for the power-law behavior of the cross section s versus excess energy: the exact value of the exponent as well as the existence of its saturation for multiple ionization appear to be related to how the total binding energy is shared between target electrons.
We present here triple differential cross sections for ionization of hydrogen atoms by electron impact at 1eV, 0.5eV and 0.3eV energy above threshold, calculated in the hyperspherical partial wave theory. The results are in very good agreement with the available semiclassical results of Deb and Crothers \cite{DC02} for these energies. With this, we are able to demonstrate that the hyperspherical partial wave theory yields good cross sections from 30 eV \cite{DPC03} down to near threshold for equal energy sharing kinematics.
We studied nonrelativistic collision of antiproton with hydrogen atom by solving time-dependent Schrodinger equation numerically. Coulomb wave function discrete variable method (CWDVR) had been used to calculate electron wave function evolution, while projectile defined classically, moving along the straight line trajectories with constant velocity. The ionization amplitude calculated by projection of the wave function into continuum wave function of the hydrogen electron. The fully differential cross sections calculated depending on projectile impact energy, scattering angle and electron ejec…
With a recently proposed quasiclassical ansatz [Geyer and Rost, J. Phys. B 35 (2002) 1479] it is possible to perform classical trajectory ionization calculations on many electron targets. The autoionization of the target is prevented by a Møller type backward--forward propagation scheme and allows to consider all interactions between all particles without additional stabilization. The application of the quasiclassical ansatz for helium targets is explained and total and partially differential cross sections for electron impact double ionization are calculated. In the high energy regime the cla…
A one parameter expression for the single ionization cross-section of atoms by electron impact is presented. Using this expression, the agreement obtained with available experimental data for 45 elements (from ionization threshold up to 200 eV ionizing electron energy) is shown to be comparable with (or better than) that achieved using other multi-parameter approaches. We suggest that the single parameter used here is associated with the effective reduction in the number of equivalent electrons within a given shell accessible for ionization by electron impact. We attribute this reduction effec…
We theoretically investigate the single and double ionization of the He atom by antiproton impact for projectile energies ranging from $3$~keV up to $1000$~keV. We obtain accurate total cross sections by directly solving the fully correlated two-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation and by performing classical trajectory Monte-Carlo calculations. The obtained quantum-mechanical results are in excellent agreement with the available experimental data. Along with the total cross sections, we also present the first fully \textit{ab initio} doubly differential data for single ionization at 1…
We report fully differential photoelectron spectra from an {\it ab-inito} coupled channels treatment of CO$_2$. Photoionization by laser pulses centered at 400 nm and 800 nm wavelength are considered, with arbitrary molecular alignment and polarization (linear and elliptic). Calculations reveal significant excited state channel contributions that are, at certain molecular orientations, an order of magnitude larger than the ground state channel in the rescattering plateau. Partial wash out of the multiphoton structure in the ATI spectra and of the nodal features in angle resolved spectra is obs…
We study the electron-impact induced ionization of O$_{2}$ from threshold to 120 eV using the electron spectroscopy method. Our approach is simple in concept and embodies the ion source with a collision chamber and a mass spectrometer with a quadruple filter as a selector for the product ions. The combination of these two devices makes it possible to unequivocally collect all energetic fragment ions formed in ionization and dissociative processes and to detect them with known efficiency. The ion source allows to vary and tune the electron-impact ionization energy and the target-gas pressure. W…
The contribution to electron-impact ionization cross sections from excitations to high-nl shells and a consequent autoionization is investigated. We perform relativistic subconfiguration-average and detailed level-to-level calculations for this process. Ionization cross sections for the W27+ ion are presented to illustrate the large influence of the high shells (n >= 9) and orbitals (l >= 4) in the excitation-autoionization process. The obtained results show that the excitations to the high shells (n >= 9) increase cross sections of the indirect ionization process by a factor of 2 compared to …
We study excitation and ionization in the 1.5 MeV/amu O$^{8+}$-Li collision system, which was the subject of a recent reaction-microscope-type experiment [Fischer \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{109}, 113202 (2012)]. Starting from an independent-electron model based on determinantal wave functions and using single-electron basis generator method and continuum distorted-wave with eikonal initial-state calculations we show that pure single ionization of a lithium $K$-shell electron is too weak a process to explain the measured single differential cross section. Rather, our analysis sug…
In this work we present fully differential cross sections (FDCSs) calculations using post and prior version of CDW--EIS theory for helium single ionization by 100 MeV C$^{6+}$ amu$^{-1}$ and 3.6 MeV amu$^{-1}$ Au$^{24+}$ and Au$^{53+}$ ions. We performed our calculations for different momentum transfer and ejected electron energies. The influence of internuclear potential on the ejected electron spectra is taken into account in all cases. We compare our calculations with absolute experimental measurements. It is shown that prior version calculations give better agreement with experiments in al…
Next investigations in our program of transition from the He atom to the complex atoms description have been presented. The method of interacting configurations in the complex number representation is under consideration. The spectroscopic characteristics of the Mg and Ca atoms in the problem of the electron-impact ionization of these atoms are investigated. The energies and the widths of the lowest autoionizing states of Mg and Ca atoms are calculated. Few results in the photoionization problem on the autoionizing states above the n=2 threshold of helium-like Be ion are presented.
Electron-impact ionization of atomic hydrogen with the electron's anomalous mag- netic moment (AMM) effects are examined. The formulas for the laser-assisted relativis- tic triple differential cross section (TDCS) in the coplanar binary geometry developed earlier by Y. Attaourti and S. Taj [Phys. Rev. A 69, 063411 (2004)] are used to check the consistency of our computations when the anomaly $κ$ is taken to be zero. We show that the contribution of the terms containing the AMM effects even in the first Born approximation has an important contribution, so it must be included in any reliable ana…
Multiple electron processes occur widely in atoms, molecules, clusters, and condensed matters when they are interacting with energetic particles or intense laser fields. In this work, a unified and accurate theoretical formalism is proposed on the direct multielectron processes of atoms including the multiple Auger decay and multiple ionization by an impact of an energetic electron or a photon based on the atomic collision theory described by a correlated many-body Green's function. Such a practical treatment is made possible due to different coherence features of the particles (matter waves) …
In a recent paper, El-Maaref et al. [J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 2019, 224:147] have reported atomic data for Zn-like W~XLV. Their results are mainly for energy levels, radiative rates, collision strengths ($Ω$) for electron impact excitation, and cross sections for ionization, but for only for a few levels/transitions, and in a very limited range of energy. For the calculations of $Ω$ they have adopted the DARC code. In this comment, through our independent calculations, we demonstrate that their results for $Ω$ are highly underestimated by over two orders of magnitude, and hence ar…
The dynamics of the electron impact multiphoton ionization of a hydrogen atom in the presence of an intense laser field has been studied theoretically, with a view to comparing (qualitatively) the results with the recent kinematically complete experiments of Horr et al [ Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 94, 153201, (2005) ] for the He target. Significant laser modifications are noted in the present doubly (DDCS) and the fully differential cross sections (TDCS). For most of the explored kinematics (chosen in accordance with the experiment), the present binary peak intensity of the laser-assisted TDCS is …
Within the framework of the coplanar binary geometry where it is justified to use plane wave solutions for the study of the $(e,2e)$ reaction and in the presence of a circularly polarized laser field, we introduce as a first step the DVRPWBA1 (Dirac-Volkov Plane Wave Born Approximation1) where we take into account only the relativistic dressing of the incident and scattered electrons. Then, we introduce the DVRPWBA2 (Dirac-Volkov Plane Wave Born Approximation2) where we take totally into account the relativistic dressing of the incident, scattered and ejected electrons. We then compare the cor…
We present a semi-relativistic model for the description of the ionization process of atomic hydrogen by electron impact in the first Born approximation by using the Darwin wave function to describe the bound state of atomic hydrogen and the Sommerfeld-Maue wave function to describe the ejected electron. This model, accurate to first order in $Z/c$ in the relativistic correction, shows that, even at low kinetic energies of the incident electron, spin effects are small but not negligible. These effects become noticeable with increasing incident electron energies. All analytical calculations are…
We have implemented three variants of the exterior complex scaling procedure in prolate spheroidal coordinates (PS-ECS) to study the dissociative electron impact ionization-excitation of hydrogen molecule, where the emerging electrons and one of the protons are detected in coincidence for the first time in a recent experiment. In the first variant, designated PSECS-1B, the two target electrons are treated ab initio while the interaction of the incident-scattered electron is taken into account using the first term of the Born series. In the second, PSECS-2BCD, the second Born term is introduced…
In the recent work of Vanne and Saenz [Phys. Rev. A 75, 063403 (2007)] the quasistatic limit of the velocity gauge strong-field approximation describing the ionization rate of atomic or molecular systems exposed to linearly polarized laser fields was derived. It was shown that in the low-frequency limit the ionization rate is proportional to the laser frequency (for a constant intensity of the laser field). In the present work I show that for circularly polarized laser fields the ionization rate is proportional to higher powers of the laser frequency for hydrogenic atoms. The new analytical ex…
A simple modification of the semiempirical model of Shevelko et al (J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 38, 525 (2005)) is proposed for the calculation of electron impact double ionization cross section of He^0, Li^(0,1+), B^(1+), C^(1+,3+), O^(0-3+), Ar^(0-7+), Fe^(1+,3+-6+), Kr^(0-4+), Xe^(0-8+), Pr^(1+-4+), Pb^(0-9+), Bi^(1+-3+,10+), and U^(0,10+,13+) atoms and positive ions. The contributions from the direct double ionization of outer shell and indirect processes of inner shells are also considered in the proposed modification. Ionic correction and relativistic factor are also incorporated. Th…
Accurate cross section data for electron impact ionization (EII) are needed in order to interpret the spectra of collisionally ionized plasmas both in astrophysics and in the laboratory. Models and spectroscopic diagnostics of such plasmas rely on accurate ionization balance calculations, which depend, in turn, on the underlying rates for EII and electron-ion recombination. EII measurements have been carried out using the TSR storage ring located at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany. Storage ring measurements are largely free of metastable contamination, resulting …
We present rigorous results for quantum systems with both bound and continuum states subjected to an arbitrary strength time-periodic field. We prove that the wave function takes the form of a sum of time-periodic resonant states with complex quasi-energies and dispersive part of the the solution given by a power series in t^{-1/2}. Generally, the imaginary part of each resonance is negative, leading to ionization of the atom, but we also give examples where the ionization rate is zero implying the existence of a time-periodic Floquet bound state. The complex quasi-energy has a convergent pert…
In the combination of crossed electric and magnetic fields and the Coulomb field of the atomic nucleus the spectrum of the Rydberg electron in the vicinity of the Stark saddle-point are investigated at a quantum mechanical level. The results expose a quantum anomaly dissociation: quasibound states near and above the saddle-point ionization limit predicted at the semi-classical level disappear at a quantum mechanical level.
A semiclassical impact parameter version of the continuum distorted wave-Eikonal initial state theory is developed to study the differential ionization of $Li$ atoms in collisions with $Li^{2+}$ ions. Both post and prior forms of the transition amplitude are considered. The fully differential cross sections are calculated for the lithium targets in their ground and their first excited states and for the projectile ions at 16~MeV impact energy. The role of the internuclear interaction as well as the significance of the post-prior discrepancy in the ejected electron spectra are investigated. The…
We present a theoretical model for atomic hydrogen ionization by electron impact in the instantaneous approximation and the more accurate non-instantaneous approach using the methods of Quantum Electrodynamics, for the binary coplanar and the coplanar asymmetric geometries. All electrons are described by plane wave functions in the coplanar binary geometry but in the asymmetric geometry the ejected electron is described by a Sommerfeld-Maue wave function. It is shown that the two models give the same results in the non relativistic limit for the binary coplanar geometry where the interactions …
We consider electron impact-driven single and double ionization of magnesium in the 10-100 eV energy range. Our classical Hamiltonian model of these (e, 2e) and (e, 3e) processes sheds light on their total cross sections and reveals the underlying ionization mechanisms. Two pathways are at play in single ionization: Delayed and direct. In contrast, only the direct process is observed in double ionization, ruling out the excitation-autoionization channel. We also provide evidence that the so-called TS2 (Two-Step 2) mechanism predominates over the TS1 (Two-Step 1) mechanism, in agreement with ex…
The presence of vortices in the ionisation of hydrogen atoms by positrons at intermediate impact energies is investigated. The present findings show that a previously reported minima in the fully-differential cross section is the signature of a vortex in the continuum positron-electron-proton system. The behaviour of the real and imaginary parts of the complex-valued transition matrix is studied in order to determine and characterize the vortex in momentum space. The obtained information is translated to fully-differential ionisation cross sections, feasible of being measured with currently av…
The three-body dynamics of the ionization of the atomic hydrogen by 30 keV antiproton impact has been investigated by calculation of fully differential cross sections (FDCS) using the classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) method. The results of the calculations are compared with the predictions of quantum mechanical descriptions: The semi-classical time-dependent close-coupling theory, the fully quantal, time-independent close-coupling theory, and the continuum-distorted-wave-eikonal-initial-state model. In the analysis particular emphasis was put on the role of the nucleus-nucleus (NN) inte…
A new relativistic method based on the Dirac equation for calculating fully differential cross sections for ionization in ion-atom collisions is developed. The method is applied to ionization of the atomic hydrogen by antiproton impact, as a non-relativistic benchmark. The fully differential, as well as various doubly and singly differential cross sections for ionization are presented. The role of the interaction between the projectile and the target nucleus is discussed. Several discrepancies in available theoretical predictions are resolved. The relativistic effects are studied for ionizatio…
We explore excitation and ionization by neutron impact as a novel tool for the investigation of electron-electron correlations in helium. We present single and double ionization spectra calculated in accurate numerical ab-initio simulations for incoming neutrons with kinetic energies of up to 150 keV. The resulting electron spectra are found to be fundamentally different from photoioniza- tion or charged particle impact due to the intrinsic many-body character of the interaction. In particular, doubly excited resonances that are strongly suppressed in electron or photon impact become prominent…
Application of the convergent close-coupling (CCC) method to electron-impact ionization of the ground state of atomic hydrogen is considered at incident energies of 15.6, 17.6, 20, 25, 27.2, 30, 54.4, 150 and 250 eV. Total through to fully differential cross sections are presented. Following the analysis of Stelbovics [submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (physics/9905020)] the equal-energy sharing cross sections are calculated using a solely coherent combination of total-spin-dependent ionization amplitudes, which are found to be simply a factor of two greater than the incoherent combination suggest…
We present a comprehensive study of electron collisions with calcium atoms by using the convergent \emph{B}-spline \emph{R}-matrix method. Elastic, excitation, and ionization cross sections were obtained for all transitions between the lowest 39 physical states of calcium (except for $3p^6 4s5g\ ^{3,1}G$) up to the $3p^6 4s8s\ ^1S$ state, for incident electron energies ranging from threshold to 100~eV. A multi\-configuration Hartree-Fock method with non\-orthogonal term-dependent orbitals was employed to generate accurate wave functions for the target states. Close-coupling expansions includin…
The convergent close-coupling method is applied to the calculation of fully differential cross sections for ionization of atomic hydrogen by 15.6 eV electrons. We find that even at this low energy the method is able to yield predictive results with small uncertainty. As a consequence we suspect that the experimental normalization at this energy is approximately a factor of two too high.
In this work we study the single ionization of hydrogen and helium by the impact of a punctual Coulomb projectile. To interpretate the cross section we introduce a series of Padé approximant. The nodes of the denominator of the Padé approximant give rise to poles in the charge complex plane. These poles move with the projectile velocity following a certain pattern. We find the positions of the poles of the Continuum Distorted Wave theory and an ensamble of experimental results. It was found that the ionization cross section may have oscillations in terms of the incident charge for a given impa…
