PLASMON MECHANISM FOR THE ENERGY-LOSS, DISSOCIATION, AND ORIENTATION OF FAST IONS EXCITED BY SURFACE-GRAZING COLLISIONS

An interaction mechanism is proposed for the inelastic, grazing-incidence scattering of fast ions by metal surfaces which involves coupling of the ion multipoles with surface plasmons. The monopole-plasmon coupling governs the energy-loss spectrum, whereas the higher-multipole interactions raise the ion into electronic excited states. The proposed mechanism is very efficient in dissociating unstable excited molecular ions and in producing atomic excited states with a high degree of orientation. © 1979 The American Physical Society.