Abstract
A free electron can form a bound state with an atomic center upon photoemission (radiative recombination). In the presence of a neighboring atom , such a bound state can, under certain conditions, be also formed via resonant transfer of energy to , with its subsequent relaxation through radiative decay (two-center dielectronic recombination). This two-center process is very efficient in the “static” case where and 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 collides with a gas of atoms and show that, even though the average distance between and 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.
- 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