Scaling properties of resonant electron transfer in ion—metal-surface interactions

Scaling properties of resonant electron transfer in the interaction of atoms and positive ions with metal surfaces are revealed by examining the dependence of numerically calculated transition matrix elements and (first-order) transition rates upon the scaled ion-surface distance D = D/D_n, where D_n is the classical threshold distance for electron transfer involving ionic stat principal quantum number n. For zero orbital angular momentum and fixed energy of the ionic states, the n-dependence of the rates at D = 1 is found to approach, in the large-n limit, a simple power law. A scaling law is established that connects, in the range D 1, transition rates for arbitrary (large) principal quantum numbers.