Radiative charge exchange in ion-atom collisions at intermediate impact velocities: Spectral characteristics and possibilities of experimental studies

Abstract

The radiative charge exchange processes in H+ + H (1s) and He+ (1s) + H (1s2) collisions at intermediate ion-atom impact velocities were treated in this paper from a spectroscopic aspect as new sources of UV and VUV emission. These processes were characterized by the cross-section spectral densities. In the case of hydrogen the corresponding spectral density was calculated for the wavelength λ, and impact velocity v in the ranges 1.823 nm ≤ λ. ≤ 217.537 nm and 0.141v0 ≤ v ≤ 1.414v0 where v0 is the atomic unit velocity. Based on these calculations the photon fluxes, generated due to the interaction of weakly ionized low pressure hydrogen plasma with H+ ion beams, were estimated. It was shown that these fluxes in the UV and VUV domain were strong enough for the spectroscopic measurement. In the case of helium the photon fluxes were estimated in the range λ > 30 nm. It was found that they are smaller than those in the case of hydrogen but still at a substantial level.