Surface wake field model of beam-foil circular Rydberg states

TL;DR

This paper presents a surface wake field model explaining the formation of circular Rydberg states in fast ion-solid collisions, emphasizing the role of target thickness and a multiphoton transition process.

Contribution

It introduces a novel surface wake field model that accounts for target thickness dependence and the transformation of low angular momentum states into circular Rydberg states.

Findings

Target thickness influences Rydberg state production.

Low angular momentum states convert to circular states via multiphoton processes.

The model explains the observed dependence on projectile velocity.

Abstract

Production of projectile Rydberg states in fast ion-solid collisions in H-like ions exhibits a pronounce target thickness dependence in spite of these states forming at the last layers. This occurs due to important role of the surface wake field which varies with the target foil thickness. Further, according to the proposed model Rydberg states with low angular momentum are transformed into a circular Rydberg states while passing through the field. The transfer occurs by a single multiphoton process with high probability depending upon the projectile ion velocity with respect to the Fermi velocity of the target electrons.