Plasmon decay mechanisms in proton-solid collisions

G. A. BOCAN Y J. E. MIRAGLIA

PHYSICAL REVIEW A - ATOMIC, MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS

American Physical Society

Lugar: New York; Año: 2005 vol. 72 p. 42903 - 42903

1050-2947

A projectile traveling inside a metal can excite bulk plasmons (collective oscillations of the electron gas) that eventually decay.The two main decay mechanisms are the excitation of a Bloch electron (NFe) and the excitation of a pair of interacting free electrons (2e). In recentpublications we developed a model to study these mechanisms for proton impact in aluminum. In this article, we apply that model to other simple metals.Interesting results are obtained for magnesium, sodium and potassium. The comparison ofthe NFe energy and angular spectra sheds light on the role the crystal structure plays. Results for the total probability and excitation power can also be understood in terms of the elements´ different characteristics. Some comments are made regarding the relative importance of the two mechanisms for each element and the role that parameters like the electron density, the crystal structure and the plasmon linewidth might play in this. Also, an approximate scaling rule is found for the plasmon creation probability as well as for the 2e contribution to the plasmon decay probability.