LOW-ENERGY ELECTRONS AND THEIR DYNAMICAL CORRELATION WITH RECOIL IONS FOR SINGLE IONIZATION OF HELIUM BY FAST, HEAVY-PEN IMPACT

Helium single ionization by 3.6 me V/u Ni24+ impact was explored in a kinematically complete experiment by combining a high-resolution recoil-ion momentum spectrometer with a novel 4 low-energy electron analyzer. More than 90% of the "soft electrons" (Ee50 eV) are ejected in the forward direction in agreement with classical-trajectory Monte Carlo predictions. The electron longitudinal momentum is not balanced by the longitudinal momentum change of the projectile but mainly by the backwards recoiling He1+ ion. Energy losses of the 0.2 GeV projectiles as small as EPEP=3.4×10-7 are observable. © 1994 The American Physical Society.