Plasmon excitation by slow ions

G.A. BOCAN; N.R. ARISTA; J.E. MIRAGLIA

PHYSICAL REVIEW A - ATOMIC, MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2007 vol. 75 p. 12902 - 12902

1050-2947

Abstract   We present a theoretical approach to the problem of subthreshold plasmon excitation in proton-aluminum collisions. Based both on recent experimental results by Ritzau et al. ͓Phys. Rev. B 59, 15506 ͑1999͔͒ and on previous calculations by two of the authors, we solve the master equations and obtain the probability of both plasmon excitation and nearly free electron excitation due to plasmon decay as functions of the projectile initial velocity. The mechanism considered for subthreshold plasmon excitation involves an intermediary fast electron as suggested by Ritzau et al.