Orientation and interference effects in single ionization of H2 by swift ions

LAURENT, G.; FAINSTEIN, P. D.; GALASSI, M. E.; RIVAROLA, R. D.; ADOUI, L.; CASSIMI, A.

JOURNAL OF PHYSICS B-ATOMIC MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Año: 2002 vol. 35 p. 495 - 501

0953-4075

The single ionization of H2 by fast ions is theoreticallystudied using a version of the continuum distorted wave eikonal initialstate model which takes into account the two-centre geometry of themolecule. Five-fold differential cross sections as a function of theelectron momenta in the final state and the orientation of the moleculeare calculated for the impact of 13.7 MeV/u-C6+ ions. Theangular distribution of emitted electrons shows distinctive structureswhich arise from the coherent emission from the two nuclei of themolecule which produces well defined interference patterns for allpossible orientations of the molecule with respect to the incident beam.When the molecule is aligned in the same direction as the incident beamit is possible to obtain a closed formula which gives the position ofthe maxima and minima in the interference pattern.