Inelastic Energy Loss and X-ray Emission in Large-Angle Atomic Collisions

Abstract

Unusually large inelastic energy losses have been measured for single collisions of argon ions with argon atoms and of iodine ions with xenon atoms using ion energies from 0.5 to 6 MeV and scattering angles from 4 to 20 deg. These losses, as high as 28 keV, are attributed in part to the production of inner-shell vacancies. The measurement of the energies of x rays from these collisions support this hypothesis.