Na*(3p)-Formation under grazing scattering of Na+-ions at an Al(111) surface

Excited Na*(3p)-atoms are observed in grazing surface-collision experiments with Na⁺-beams. Such atoms can be formed beyond a certain threshold velocity via resonant electron transfer between atomic and metallic conduction band levels due to motion of the atom relative to the surface of the metal (“kinematic resonance”). This mechanism is studied here theoretically employing two different techniques: the nonperturbative “Coupled Angular Mode” (CAM) method and the approximate “Transfer Hamiltonian” (TH) method. The calculated Na*(3p)-populations agree well with recent experimental results. Moreover, the complete density matrix of the Na*(3p)-subspace has been computed with the TH-method for ion-energies between 10 and 300 keV.