This book offers a lucid and concise description of contemporary experimental and theoretical progress in the field of ion impact phenomena. New results are combined with a review of essential background material to yield a work that will be equally useful to established reseachers and newcomers to the field.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 1.1 The Need to Study Ion Impact Phenomena.- 1.2 Some Contemporary Ion Production Techniques.- 2. Ion Formation Processes: Ionization in Ion-Electron Collisions.- 2.1 Theoretical Methods.- 2.2 Ionization Mechanisms.- 2.3 Experimental Approaches.- 2.4 Single Ionization Cross Section Data.- 2.5 Multiple Ionization Cross Section Data.- 2.6 A Unified Picture of Ionization.- 2.7 Conclusions.- 3. Ion-Neutral Reactions: Collision Spectrometry of Multiply Charged Ions at Low Energies.- 3.1 Dynamics of Collisions.- 3.2 Theoretical Aspects.- 3.3 Experimental Techniques.- 3.4 Discussion of Translational Energy Spectrometry.- 3.5 Discussion of State-Selective Differential Electron Capture Cross Sections.- 4. Energy Spectrometry of Fine-Structure Transitions in Ion-Atom Collisions.- 4.1 High-Resolution Ion Translational Energy Spectrometry.- 4.2 Fine-Structure Transitions in Ne+, Ar+ and Kr+.- 4.3 Excitation and De-excitation Processes in Doubly Charged Rare Gas Ions.- 4.4 The Role of Fine-Structure States in Electron Capture Reactions.- 5. Probing Interaction Potentials: Small Angle Differential Scattering of H+ and H with He.- 5.1 Experimental Method.- 5.2 Theoretical Considerations.- 5.3 Results and Discussion.- 5.4 Summary.- 6. High-Resolution Translational Energy Spectrometry of Molecular Ions.- 6.1 Some Typical Experimental Arrangements.- 6.2 Results and Discussion.- 7. Molecular Ionization Energies by Double Charge Transfer Spectrometry.- 7.1 Apparatus and Experimental Techniques.- 7.2 Studies of Electronic States of Doubly Charged Ions.- 7.3 Studies of Large Molecules.- 7.4 Reaction Window for Double Electron Capture.- 7.5 Single Ionization Energies of Radical Species.- 8. Studies of Multiply Charged Molecules by Ion Collision Techniques and Ab Initio Theoretical Methods.- 8.1 Stability of Multiply Charged Molecular Ions.- 8.2 Contemporary Ion-Impact Methods of Studying Multiply Charged Molecules.- 8.3 Other Experimental Techniques.- 8.4 Theoretical Description of Molecular Ions.- 8.5 A Glimpse into the Real World of Multiply Charged Molecules: Ambiguities and Controversies.- 9. Dissociative Recombination in Ion-Electron Collisions: New Directions.- 9.1 New Developments in the Merged Beam Technique.- 9.2 Detection of Highly Excited States.- 9.3 Measurements of Branching Ratios.- 9.4 Recombination Studies at Storage Rings.- 9.5 Heavy Ions.- 9.6 Epilogue.