Energy transfer in ion-Rydberg-atom charge exchange - art. no. 052712

Charge-transfer collisions between slow multiply charged ions and highly ex cited Rydberg atoms have been studied to determine the details of the inter nal energy transfer accompanying charge exchange. The experiment uses laser s to define uniquely the binding energies of both initial and final states of the collision, thereby eliminating the ambiguity inherent in the selecti ve field ionization method used for previous studies. The results clearly c haracterize the capture energetics over the range of ion charge q = 1 - 11 and velocity v = 0.031-0.138 a.u. Thr measurements are in very good agreeme nt with predictions of the classical trajectory Monte Carlo method, but not with predictions of other classical models.