Measurement of the transverse kinetic energies of argon recoil ions produced in 120 MeV -Ar collisions

Measurements were carried out to deduce the transverse kinetic energies of highly charged argon recoil ions produced in single collisions of 120 MeV ions with argon atoms in which the post collision charge states of the projectiles were not determined. A time of flight spectrometer was designed and fabricated to detect the charge states of recoils. Experimental procedures for optimizing the spectrometer for extraction, transmission and detection of recoils are described. A simple approach for determining the transverse kinetic energy of the recoil ions from FWHM of the peaks is reported. This method is shown to be independent of the choice of collision partners and requires only the knowledge of the physical values of “optimized parameters” of time-of-flight spectrometer used in the experiment. The transverse kinetic energy of the recoil ions determined from the present approach is found to vary from 0.03 eV for to 4.02 eV for Ar¹⁰⁺. These values are compared with the results reported by earlier workers and are shown to follow a q²-behaviour up to a charge state q =8+ of the recoil ions. Received: 5 February 1998 / Revised: 8 June 1998 / Accepted: 11 June 1998     

Quadrupolar order in the Heisenberg ferromagnet with the single-ion cubic anisotropy

The ground state properties of S =2 ferromagnets with isotropic Heisenberg exchange (J) and single-ion cubic anisotropy (D) are studied. The perturbation theory for is used to find an effective Hamiltonian up to the fourth order for 1, 2 and 3 dimensions. It is shown that in opposition to the MFA prediction there is the quadrupolar long range order at T = 0 in the non-magnetic state of the system without a quadrupolar type of interaction. The effect is a consequence of the quantum nature of the model. Received: 19 February 1998 / Accepted: 17 March 1998     

Electron multiplicity in slow collisions of Ar ions with C

Electron capture by Ar⁸⁺ in collisions with C₆₀ fullerene has been investigated using coincident measurements of the number n of ejected electrons, the mass and charge of multicharged Cr+ ₆₀ recoil ions and their fragments Ci+ m and the final charge state of outgoing projectiles Ar(8-s)+ (). The number of captured electrons r is the sum of the numbers of stabilized and emitted electrons: r = n + s. The ratio n / s decreases by a factor three with s increasing from 1 to 7 showing that the multiply excited states populated by capture of a large number of electrons are rather stable against auto-ionisation. Each kinetic energy spectrum of Ar⁺ and Ar²⁺ projectiles is composed of two peaks which we attribute to collisions “inside” and “outside” the C₆₀ cage. The measured energy shift of the projectile keV is consistent with the corresponding energy loss keV in a carbon foil with an equivalent thickness. Inside collisions are characterized by a strong dissociation of recoil ions into light monocharged fragments and by a high multiplicity of ejected electrons. Received: 25 March 1998 / Received in final form and Accepted: 9 June 1998     

Predictions of geometrical structures and ionization potentials for small barium clusters Ba

The geometrical structure of ground state Ba_n clusters (n =2-14) has been predicted from various types of calculations including two ab initio approaches used for the smaller sizes namely HF+MP2( n =2-6), DFT (LSDA)( n =2-6, 9) and one model approach HF+pairwise dispersion used for all sizes investigated here. The lowest energy configurations as well as some isomers have been investigated. The sizes n =4, 7 and 13 are predicted to be the relatively more stable ones and they correspond to the three compact structures: the tetrahedron, the pentagonal bipyramid and the icosahedron. The growth behavior from Ba₇ to Ba₁₃ appears to be characterized by the addition of atoms around a pentagonal bipyramid leading to the icosahedral structure of Ba₁₃ which is consistent with the observed size-distribution of barium clusters. Values for vertical ionization potentials calculated for n =2-5 at the CI level are seen to be in quite good agreement with recent measures. Received: 14 May 1997 / Received in final form: 2 February 1998 / Accepted: 27 February 1998     

Precise - and -factor measurements of Ba+ isotopes

Laser-microwave double and triple resonance experiments were performed on clouds of Ba⁺ ions confined in a Penning ion trap to induce and detect electronic and nuclear spin flip transitions. Collisions with buffer gas molecules in the trap was used to reduce the lifetime of a long lived metastable state of the ions, in which population trapping might occur, and to cool the ions to the ambient temperature. Loss of ions from the trap by collisions were prevented by coupling the magnetron and reduced cyclotron motions by an additional r.f. field at the sum frequency of the two motions. Electronic Zeeman transitions in ¹³⁸Ba⁺ and ¹³⁵Ba⁺ were observed at a full width of about 3 kHz at a transition frequency of 80 GHz. The uncertainty of the line center was . From the magnetic field calibration by the cyclotron resonance of electrons stored in the same trap the g_J-factor for both isotopes could be determined to . From radiofrequency induced transitions of ¹³⁵Ba⁺ the nuclear g-factor could be determined . Both measurements improve earlier results by about one order of magnitude. Received: 9 July 1998 / Accepted: 14 July 1998     

Reaction dynamics of Cl O ClO O

Applying the two photon laser induced fluorescence technique for nascent state resolved ClO() detection, the reaction dynamics of Cl+O ClO+O₂ is investigated. The ClO product is formed in its electronic ground state ClO(). A complete product state analysis in terms of vibration, rotation, spin-orbit and -states indicates that nascent ClO radicals are formed in v =0-6 vibrational states peaking at v =3. The ClO fragment shows a moderate rotational excitation, described by a Boltzmann distribution with a temperature parameter of 1300 K 200 K. The spin orbit ratio of :. Most of the excess energy is released as translational energy or as internal energy of the O₂ product. By comparing our results with the trajectory studies of Farantos and Murrell, we favour a reaction mechanism, where the transition complex is planar containing an essentially linear OOCl group. In order to determine the possible influence of vibrationally excited ClO on other trace components of the atmosphere, especially the reaction ClO(v >0)+ O₃, a rough estimate of the vibrational relaxation rate of ClO with the major atmospheric collision partner, N₂, has been performed. A measurement of the vibrational distribution of ClO at different N₂ pressures indicates a mean vibrational relaxation rate of . Received: 27 February 1998 / Revised: 1st April 1998 / Accepted: 15 April 1998     

Anomalous magnetic behavior of superconducting thin films in small magnetic fields [4] close to the transition temperature

Using a specially designed SQUID magnetometer we measured the temperature dependence of the critical current density in a ring patterned thin film for magnetic fields parallel to the c-axis. In addition, the temporal relaxation of the remanent state as prepared by field cooling in an external field of 100 Oe at different temperatures is determined. The j c ( T ) data show a field-dependent anomalous kink close to T_c pointing to reduced dissipation with increasing temperature allowing to construct a corresponding H-T borderline. A similar behavior is observed for the normalized relaxation rate S ( T ) as extracted from the temporal behavior of the remanent state, which, at low temperatures, exhibits the expected increase for increasing T-values, while an anomalous decrease of S ( T ) is found for temperatures above 85 K. While the low-T regime is attributed to creep of 2D pinned single vortex lines, the high-T behavior is suggested to be dominated by collective motion with a more sluggish dynamics. This change in dynamics is also reflected by the activation barriers for flux creep U ( j ), which show a corresponding crossover in μ from 0.06 to 0.99. An additional scaling analysis of the E-j characteristics for according to vortex glass theory reveals quasi-2D collective creep behavior with . Received: 8 April 1998 / Revised: 15 July 1998 / Accepted: 2 September 1998     

Rare-gas-induced broadening and shift of two-photon transitions to intermediate Rydberg states of atomic thallium*

Results of broadening and shift measurements of Doppler-free two-photon lines for transitions from the ground state to the Rydberg states with intermediate principle quantum numbers of atomic thallium perturbed by rare gases are reported. The rates show a distinct behaviour in this range of principle quantum numbers and significant dependence on the total angular momentum of the upper nP state. The experimental results are compared with calculations using a Van der Waals potential and a superposition of polarization and Fermi potentials. Additionally, broadening and shift rates of the transition Tl 6P _3/2 -9P _3/2 have been measured for quadrupolar as well as for mainly scalar excitation. The rates for both kinds of excitation coincide within the limits of error reflecting the small perturbation of the 6P _3/2 state compared to that of the upper 9P _3/2 state. Received: 6 August 1997 / Revised in final form: 29 November 1997 / Accepted: 11 December 1997     

Sextet levels in the phosphorus-like ion Cu

Delayed spectra of foil-excited fast Cu ions have been studied to find a number of 3s3p⁴, 3 s2 3 p2 3 d and 3s3p^33d levels in the P-like ion Cu¹⁴⁺ (spectrum Cu XV). Among these are 3 s 3 p3 3 d ⁶ D levels, which have never been observed before, although they are the lowest excited states that have the same parity as the ground configuration. The investigation combined theory and experiment. The calculations used the Cowan code with semi-empirically scaled parameters and extensive MCDF computations. Received: 14 April 1998 / Accepted: 18 April 1998     

Charge correlations in the weakly doped t-J model calculated by projection technique

We study frequency- and wave-vector dependent charge correlations in weakly doped antiferromagnets using Mori-Zwanzig projection technique. The system is described by the two-dimensional t-J model. The ground state is expressed within a cumulant formalism which has been successfully applied to study magnetic properties of the weakly doped system. Within this approach the ground state contains independent spin-bag quasiparticles (magnetic polarons). We present results for the charge-density response function and for the optical conductivity at zero temperature for different values of t / J. They agree well with numerical results calculated by exact diagonalization techniques. The density response function for intermediate and large momenta shows a broad continuum on energy scales of order of several t whereas the optical conductivity for is dominated by low energy excitations (at 1.5-2J). We show that these weak-doping properties can be well understood by transitions between excited states of spin-bag quasiparticles. Received: 10 July 1997 / Revised: 19 March 1998 / Accepted: 3 April 1998     

The and transitions in the oxygen isoelectronic sequence

Multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock results are reported for the and transitions in the oxygen-like sequence for Z =9,...,18. Both transition energies and transition rates are included. Received: 29 June 1998 / Accepted: 1st July 1998     

Intercombination transition rates in Al-like ions

N =3, intercombination transitions in Al-like ions of Au have been studied by time-resolved EUV spectroscopy of foil-excited ion beams. Wavelengths and lifetimes are compared to the available relativistic calculations. The theoretical data are found to be useful for guidance, but of clearly insufficient precision, in particular for the transition probabilities. Received: 23 February 1998 / Accepted: 5 March 1998     

Magnetic phase diagram of perovskite Mn oxides at T = 0

Minimizing total free energy by numerical calculations, we obtain the magnetic phase diagram of perovskite Mn oxides, such as with , Ca, Sr, etc. in the whole doping region from x =0 to x =1 at temperature T =0. It is discovered that a spiral state is stable in a low concentration of X ions while a canted state is stable in a high concentration of X ions, and a ferromagnetic phase can exist in the intermediate concentrations when the antiferromagnetic interaction is weak. The energy difference between spiral and canted states is found to be small when the Hund coupling is large. Magnetic field induced spiral/canted phase transition is considered as a possible mechanism of the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) in the Mn oxides. Received: 11 July 1996 / Revised: 7 December 1996 / Accepted: 24 July 1997     

Cusp satellite bands in the spectrum of molecule

We report measurements and a theoretical explanation of the cusp-shaped satellite bands in the blue wing of the cesium D₂ resonance line which have been observed for the first time. The bands are identified as transitions where the upper state dissociates into the 6 ²P _3/2 + 6 ² S _1/2 atomic asymptote. The experiment has been performed using a standard absorption setup, computer controlled data acquisition and computer data processing. We have shown that the peculiar shape of the difference-potential curve is solely responsible for the spectrum containing the cusp-shaped satellite bands. The appearance of these satellite bands has been discussed and explained relating the theory of satellite bands to the catastrophe theory. The shape of the line wing and of the satellite bands have been calculated using the Fourier transform technique. To ensure a more stringent comparison between the experimental and the theoretical spectrum, we have analyzed and compared the derivatives of the measured and the calculated satellite band shape. On the contrary to the customary direct comparison between the measured and the calculated absorption coefficient, the derivative clearly shows all differences and resemblances between satellite band profiles. The degree of coincidence of the experimentally observed and the theoretically calculated satellite band shape can be used as an ultimate check on the assessment of the quality of potential-energy curves involved in the formation of satellite bands. Received: 1 October 1997 / Revised: 14 January 1998 / Accepted: 24 February 1998     

Relativistic and many-body effects in K, L, and M shell ionization energy for elements with and the determination of the 1s Lamb shift for heavy elements

We report on a calculation of K, L and M inner-shell ionization energy in atoms with atomic numbers in the range . Many-body effects are evaluated for all n =1, 2, and 3 hole states. Those include correlation and effects due to the auto-ionizing nature of the hole states (Auger shift). For high Z we add recent corrected nuclear polarization, and several second-order vacuum polarization corrections. K and L ionization energies are compared with experimental X-ray absorption edges measurements. Excellent agreement with rare gazes and metal vapor measurements is found. We also compare our calculations with X-ray transition energies for all K and L lines that involve K, L and M holes. Finally we use K X-ray lines to deduce an hydrogenlike 1 s Lamb shift for several heavy elements, with far better accuracy than has been obtained by direct measurements of hydrogenlike ions. Received: 25 February 1998 / Accepted: 31 March 1998     

Reaction and inelastic processes in the collision O () + O ()

A reduced dimensionality model is used to study the reaction OO O ₃ ( X1A1 ) + O( ³ P ) by means of time-dependent and time-independent quantum-mechanical methods. State-selected probabilities and rate constants are obtained for the reactive process as well as for the inelastic collision in which the vibrationally excited oxygen loses one or more quanta. It is found that the experimentally observed jump in depletion rates above a critical value of v could be partially explained by the vibrational relaxation rather than reaction. Reaction only becomes important for relatively high translational energies and therefore the calculated rates are too small at the temperatures of interest. It is concluded, however, that the reaction saddle point region in the potential energy surface plays a crucial role in the enhancement of vibrational relaxation. Received: 3 February 1998 / Revised: 27 March 1998 / Accepted: 15 May 1998     

Cluster ion emission in the interaction of slow highly charged ions with surfaces

Cluster ion emission from a variety of surfaces upon impact of highly charged ions is investigated by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. The yield of cluster ions as a function of cluster size for and surface follow a power law decline with exponent approaching the -2 limit of the ”equilibrium” and ”shock wave” cluster emission models. While the decline of the cluster ion emission with cluster size is an exponential decay for highly oriented pyrolytic graphite upon impact, the decline is more gradual than for impact, such that at the relative cluster yield is 1000 times higher. Received: 22 April 1997 / Revised: 29 December 1997 / Accepted: 19 January 1998     

Multi-electron transitions in -Ne and -Ne collisions

The ratios of the multiple ionization cross-section to those of the single ionization of neon are measured for 2.0-8.0 MeV and ( q = 2-5) ions bombardment. By means of the coincidence beween the charge state-selected scattered projectiles and recoil ions the contribution of the electron capture is separated from the total multiple ionization. A theoretical method is proposed to exclude the Auger transitions from the considered multiple ionization processes in the present work. The (q / v) dependence of the obtained ratios of the “pure” direct multiple ionization to those of the single ionization is discussed. The electronic structure dependence of the electron transition occurring in ion-neon collisions is studied and discussed for the symmetrical collision systems - and -. Received: 4 June 1998 / Received in final form: 24 August 1998