DIFFERENTIAL CROSS SECTIONS FOR NEUTRAL-NEUTRAL COLLISIONS

Abstract

Collisions of fast ions and neutral atoms with other atoms and molecules are important in a broad range of physical phenomena. A new technique, based on the use of a micro-channel plate position-sensitive detector, has been developed for studying some of these collision processes. Differential cross sections have been measured over a primary beam energy range of 500eV to 5000eV for the scattering of atomic hydrogen, helium, and oxygen on targets of N(,2), O(,2), H(,2), and He at laboratory angles between 0.08 degrees and 5 degrees. These differential cross sections provide useful information for atmospheric modelers as well as yielding new, fundamental atomic collision data. The results show good agreement with previous measurements when comparison is possible. Preliminary data for charge transfer reactions are included and interaction potentials obtained by inversion of the measured differential cross sections are compared with potentials available from the literature