1

I.

INTRODUCTION

Here, we present new results on the determination of Rm for additional projectile ions

such as boron and uorine He-like beams in collision with H2 targets in an eort, not only

to extend the isoelectronic focus of these investigations, but also to provide higher accuracy

measurements as well. Our ZAPS results are based on a new technique that involves two

independent measurements of the same electron spectrum at the same collision energy, but

using mixed beams having quite dierent 1s2s 3S metastable beam fraction in each. In

the following sections, we present the new technique and show how to extract the distinct

contributions from each one of the ground- and metastable-state beam components, thus,

10

separately determining their contributions. In addition, the ratio of 2P+ /2 P produced by

11

capture to the metastable component for which spin statistics predicts a 3:1 ratio is also

12

determined for the rst time. Finally, we also report on the ratios of 2D/2P and 2P+ /2 P

13

now populated from the 1s2 ground state beam component by TE and compare them to

14

RTE calculations, thus providing a sensitive indicator as to the importance of RTE and

15

other active TE processes that can aect the overall intensities of the measured Auger

16

spectra. The above ratios are also extracted - using our technique - from the carbon on

17

helium electron spectra presented in Ref. [? ] and critically compared to those of boron and

18

uorine, thus extending the isoelectronic database and providing additional information on

19

the basic problem of the unexpected enhancement of Rm .

20

II.

THE EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH

ZAPS measurements using mixed (1s2 1S, 1s2s 3S) state He-like ion beams

21

A.

22

The mechanisms for populating the Li-like 1s2l2l doubly excited projectile states depend

23

on the initial state of the ion beam. In tandem accelerators the fast He-like beams are

24

delivered either in: i) An almost pure ground state (1s2 1S) after gas stripping inside the

25

tandem tank [? ], ii) A mixed (1s2 1S, 1s2s 3S) state, after either stripping the negative ion

26

beam inside the tandem tank or post-stripping (by thin carbon foils) the usually Li-like

27

ion beam delivered by the tandem. The value of the metastable fraction f3S increases with

28

stripping energy reaching a saturation value of about 25-30% when the stripping velocity

29

of the negative ion beam is near the K-shell electron velocity of the ion vK [? ]. Other
1

30

shorter-lived states such as the 1s2s 1S state, while also initially present in the beam, decay

31

much faster to the ground state and can therefore be safely neglected in the nal beam

32

content determination [? ].

Technique for the evaluation of Rm = T2p ( 4P )/T2p (2P )

33

B.

34

The determination of Rm in ZAPS measurements so far involved either the prior knowl-

35

edge of the inherent metastable fractions in the impinging ion beam from literature reports

36

[? ] or the use of both mixed state (1s2 1S, 1s2s 3S) and pure 1s2 1S ground state He-like ion

37

beams [? ? ]. In the literature, various methods have been reported for the determination

38

of the metastable 1s2s 3S beam fraction (f3S ) including high resolution target K x-ray [? ]

39

and high resolution projectile Auger measurements [? ], as well as more recent ZAPS [? ? ]

40

measurements. Alternatively, carrying out measurements using both pure ground state and

41

mixed state beams can be quite eective in separating out the processes that originate from

42

the metastable 1s2s 3S part of the beam as nicely shown in Ref. [? ]. However, it is not

43

always possible to obtain near pure (with less than a few percent of metastable) ground state

44

beams utilizing gas stripping inside the tandem tank as f3S depends on the stripping energy.

45

Thus, for measurements in which the stripping energies result in a considerable amount of

46

metastables this method cannot be applied.

e
N e [x] = Nm
[x] + Nge [x]
[
(
)
(
)]
Ng dg [x]
Nm dm [x]
= k[x] [x]
+
NI
d
NI
d
47

(1)
(2)

or equivalently using the results of Eq. ??:

d[x]
= (1 f3S )
d

dg [x]
d

(
+ f3S

dm [x]
d

)
(3)

48

Here, the total number of accumulated ions NI is the sum of the ions in the ground state

49

Ng and metastable state Nm , i.e. NI = Ng + Nm , while the metastable fraction f3S is dened

50

as f3S Nm /NI [? ]. In this case, dg [x]/d and dm [x]/d represent the dierential

51

production cross sections for all possible processes that can populate the state x from either

52

the ground state (g) or metastable states (m) and are by the above denition independent

53

of the amount of metastable fraction in the utilized ion beam. This is clearly not the case
2

= 1100 nm
28

28

12

PEAK

24

= 7x10

13

W/cm

PEAK

24

20

20

16

16

12

12

= 7x10

W/cm

Dissociation Probability - dP/dE (a.u.)

8
8

10
10

11

11

0
0,0

0,4

0,8

1,2

1,6

2,0

2,4

0,0

0,4

0,8

1,2

1,6

2,0

2,4

KER(eV)

28

28

I
24

13

PEAK

= 10

W/cm

14

PEAK

24

20

20

16

16

12

12

= 10

W/cm

8
9

10

10

9
4

11

11

0
0,0

0,4

0,8

1,2

1,6

2,0

2,4

28

0,0

0,4

0,8

1,2

1,6

2,0

2,4

28

13

PEAK

= 3x10

14

W/cm

PEAK

24

24

20

20

= 2x10

W/cm

3
2

16

16

12

12

9
10

10
4

11

11
0

0
0,0

0,4

0,8

1,2

1,6

2,0

2,4

0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

2,5

Kinetic Energy Release - KER (eV)

FIG. 1. Li-like 1s2l2l (2S+1)L for l, l = 0, 1 (symbolized for short as

(2S+1)L)

Auger electron

spectra from 4.5 MeV B3+ (1s2 1S, 1s2s 3S) collisions with H2 as reported in Ref. [? ]. The B3+
beam was produced: [1] after post-stripping the incident B2+ beam in thin carbon foils, [2] after

post-stripping the incident B2+ beam in Ar gas. The smaller ratio of 4P to 2D yields in spectrum
[2]

[1]

[2] implies f3S < f3S . The ve peaks have been least square tted on top of a baseline quadratic
background.

54

for d[x]/d which is strictly dependent on the amount of metastable fraction f3S as shown

55

explicitly in Eq. 3. It is therefore not a real cross section as such.

56

III.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

57

We report on new results on the value of the ratio Rm = T2p ( 4P )/(T2p (2P+ ) + T2p (2P ))

58

of state production cross sections formed by 2p electron transfer to the 1s2s 3S metastable

59

beam component obtained from previously published Auger electron spectra for collisions

60

of 4.5 MeV B3+ (1s2 1S, 1s2s 3S) and 25.3 MeV F7+ (1s2 1S, 1s2s 3S) with H2 targets. These

61

results were obtained using a new method that utilizes two independent measurements of

62

the same projectile Auger spectrum, but with quite dierent 1s2s 3S metastable fraction in

63

the ion beam of each measurement. Its comparative advantage lies in the fact that it allows

64

for the determination of Rm with considerable reduction of experimental uncertainty, even

65

in cases where it is not possible to obtain a pure ground state He-like ion beam, as required

66

in older methods. Our results for boron show a clear departure from the expected theoretical

67

value of Rm = 2, in support of earlier indications for carbon [? ? ] and uorine [? ], with

68

no clear explanation to date. In addition to our results on Rm , we also present for the rst

69

time results on the related ratio, rm = T2p ( 2P+ )/T2p (2P ), which is found to be in fairly

70

good agreement with its theoretically predicted value of rm = 3. Moreover, our method also

71

allows us to determine the additional ratios of 2D/2P and 2P+ /2P populations produced

72

from the ground state beam component. These ratios when compared to RTE calculations

73

- expected to be the dominant contributor - result in unexpected disagreement, suggesting

74

the possibility of an additional active NTEg process.

75

With the addition of these new results for boron and uorine to those of carbon, we

76

have shown that an adequate explanation of the observed discrepancies between theory and

77

experiment is still missing. The determination of Rm is important since any deviations

78

from its fundamental theoretical value of two indicates the existence of mechanisms at play

79

either awaiting to be discovered, or known but thought to be unimportant or even not

80

well understood. Thus, it opens up a window for exploring such hidden processes as for

81

example the proposed enhancement mechanisms of selective cascade feeding and/or dynamic

82

Pauli exchange. Consequently, there still seems to be a clear need to further extend this

83

isoelectronic investigation over the entire rst row of the periodic table and possibly even
4

84

to higher Z atomic species, providing high quality Auger electron spectra in a systematic

85

approach. In addition, the use of both light and heavier targets could shed further light on

86

the role of the NTE processes. Finally, cascade contributions will need to be computed for

87

all ions utilised in any such measurements including their eect on the solid angle correction

88

factor for the long-lived 1s2s2p 4P state. Theoretical account of NTE contributions both

89

from the ground and the metastable states would be particular useful together with other

90

basic theoretical support on atomic structure of Li- and He-like ionic states. Currently,

91

we are working towards these goals with our ZAPS setup now in full operation within the

92

APAPES project [? ] at the Athens 5.5 MV tandem accelerator of the NCSR Demokritos.

93

Appendix A: Determination of cross sections dm [x]/d and dg [x]/d

94

The above system of eight non-linear equations in ten unknowns (each of the four
dm [x]
d

95

four

96

be solved.

97

[1]

[2]

dg [x]
,
d

for x: 4P , 2P , 2D states and the two unknown fractions f3S , f3S ) cannot in general

REFERENCES