POSITION-DEPENDENT CHARGE-EXCHANGE AND ENERGY-LOSS PROCESSES FOR MEV HE IONS NEAR A CRYSTAL-SURFACE

Inelastic interaction Of fast ions at glancing angles of incidence on a low index crystal surface is described by the probabilities, which depend on the distance of the ion from the surface; the charge state and energy distributions of the scattered ions are found to result from position-dependent interactions along their trajectories in vacuum. A stochastic equation to describe the charge exchange and energy loss of specularly reflected ions is proposed. Taking account of ion scattering at surface steps, the theory is applied to derive the position-dependent probabilities of electron loss and electron capture of MeV ions from the observed charge state and energy distributions of the scattered ions at glancing angle incidence on the (100) surface of SnTe.