Lutz Schweikhard

Abstract: The X-ray signature of charge exchange between highly charged L-shell iron ions and neutral gas atoms was studied in the laboratory in order to assess its diagnostic utility. Significant differences with spectra formed by electron-impact excitation were observed. In particular, a strong enhancement was found of the emission corresponding to n {le} 4 {yields} n = 2 transitions relative to the n = 3 {yields} n = 2 emission. This enhancement was detectable even with relatively low-resolution X-ray instrumentation (E/{Delta}E {approx} 10) and may enable future identification of charge exchange as a line-formation mechanism in astrophysical spectra.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a method for the determination of dissociation energies of polyatomic systems that undergo sequential fragmentation with energy-dependent decay pathway branching, without the need for a specific modelling of the system or of its fragmentation process, thus eliminating several systematic errors of traditional methods.

TL;DR: In this article, the magnetic trapping mode of the Livermore high-energy Electron Beam Ion Trap is exploited to study charge transfer reactions between cold (few eV/amu) highly charged ions and gases.

TL;DR: In this paper, the binding between V 5 + and hydrogen is studied by collision induced dissociation of the cluster-adsorbate V 5+H 2. Vanadium clusters are produced by laser vaporization and injected into an electromagnetic ion trap.

TL;DR: In this paper, the collision-induced dissociation of positively charged gold clusters (2 to 23 atoms) stored in a Penning trap has been studied, and the minimum kinetic energies of clusters required to induce dissociation exhibit a pronounced odd-even effect.