MULTIPLE ELECTRON-CAPTURE PROCESSES BETWEEN HIGHLY-CHARGED IONS AND MOLECULES

We have determined the absolute cross sections for one electron captur e and total electron capture between slow, highly charged ions and mul tielectron molecule targets (H-2, N-2, CO, CO2, CH4) under single coll ision conditions. It is found that the cross sections increase as the charge of the projectile ions increases and as the ionization potentia l of the target molecules decreases, as previously observed in rare ga s targets. Furthermore, we have found that a scaling law previously pr oposed for atoms, which is based on the extended classical over barrie r model, can also reproduce our data for molecular targets.