In this Letter, we study charge exchange and energy loss of protons, taking
into account the dynamics of both nuclei and electrons during the collisio
n with atomic hydrogen, helium, and neon targets. We obtain the nuclear and
electronic contributions to the energy loss as well as the charge exchange
probability, and the total cross section for charge exchange. We find a lo
w-energy threshold in the electronic energy loss due to the quantization of
excited states. We find that the electronic stopping cross section is not
proportional to the velocity of the projectile at very low velocities (ener
gies), as is predicted by electron gas theory. This confirms recent experim
ental results.