Theory of the<i>l</i>-state population of Rydberg states formed in ion-solid collisions

Abstract

The experimentally observed high-l-state population of ions excited in ion-solid interactions differs sharply from l-state populations produced in ion-atom collisions. We have studied the population dynamics of electronic excitation and transport within the framework of a classical transport theory for ${\mathrm{O}}^{2+}$ (2-MeV/u) ions traversing C foils. The resulting delayed-photon-emission intensities are found to be in very good agreement with experiment. Initial phase-space conditions have been obtained from both classical-trajectory Monte Carlo calculations and random initial distributions. We find evidence that the very-high-l-state populations produced in ion-solid collisions are the result of a diffusion to high-l states under the influence of multiple scattering in the bulk of the solid.