Two-center dielectronic recombination in slow atomic collisions

A. Jacob, C. Müller, and A. B. Voitkiv
Phys. Rev. A 100, 012706 – Published 12 July 2019

Abstract

A free electron can form a bound state with an atomic center A upon photoemission (radiative recombination). In the presence of a neighboring atom B, such a bound state can, under certain conditions, be also formed via resonant transfer of energy to B, with its subsequent relaxation through radiative decay (two-center dielectronic recombination). This two-center process is very efficient in the “static” case where A and B form a weakly bound system, dominating over single-center radiative recombination up to internuclear distances as large as several nanometers. Here we study its dynamic variant in which recombination occurs when a beam of species A collides with a gas of atoms B and show that, even though the average distance between A and B in collisions is orders of magnitude larger than the typical size of a bound system, the two-center recombination can still outperform the single-center radiative recombination.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 24 April 2019
  • Revised 24 June 2019
  • Corrected 28 October 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.100.012706

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Corrections

28 October 2020

Correction: Minor typographical errors in Sec. 2 were found. The indices in the label for the intermediate state in the text before Eq. (6) have been fixed. Numerical prefactors in Eqs. (14),  (16), and (21) have been fixed.

Authors & Affiliations

A. Jacob, C. Müller, and A. B. Voitkiv

  • Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 100, Iss. 1 — July 2019

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review A

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×