RESONANCE TUNNELING NEUTRALIZATION OF LOW-ENERGY IONS NEAR METAL-SURFACES

Neutralization of ions scattered from metal surfaces via resonance tunneling is considered. To calculate the matrix elements a transformation of the second-quantized Hamiltonian to a new representation in which the atom is described by a state orthogonal to all conduction band states of the metal is implemented. This transformation creates an additional term ''orthogonalization term'' in the matrix elements which in turn affects the value of the transition rate and neutral fraction. The theory is applied to the case of a proton capturing an electron from aluminum surface. The orthogonalization correction to the neutralization rate is found to be important at small distances from the surface. The neutral fraction is greatly affected by orthogonalization for low-energy (few keV) protons.