Emerging charge state after grazing collisions of heavy ions on SnTe surfaces - art. no. 022901

Emerging charge states of He and Li ions impinging with grazing incidence o n a SnTe surface are calculated at high impact velocities. The charge state distribution is obtained as result of the interplay of two atomic processe s: electron capture from bound states of the topmost surface atoms and elec tron loss from the bound states of the projectile due to collisions with th e surface atoms. At high energies we find that the projectile leaves the su rface with a charge state larger than the quasiequilibrium charge state rea ched in the vicinity of the surface. We explain this behavior in terms of t he different ranges of capture and loss mechanisms. As the projectile escap es from the surface, the balance between these two processes is broken: cap ture is no longer effective, and loss survives ionizing the projectile. Com parisons with the experiments are presented and discussed.