Excitation and Ionization in Atomic Collision Processes --- General Theory and Accurate Numerical Calculations

Drake University, Des Moines IA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a theoretical program to examine in detail collisions of photons (light), electrons, and other charged particles with atoms and ions.  Highly sophisticated numerical methods and computer programs will be developed and then applied to perform benchmark calculations, whose results will be compared with data from state-of-the-art experiments currently being performed in various laboratories worldwide.  This project provides accurate atomic data, which are needed in many applications, such as modeling plasmas for the lighting industry, processes in planetary atmospheres, and the physics of stars and lasers.  In addition, a deeper understanding of highly correlated processes on the submicroscopic atomic scale will be gained. Of particular interest are processes in ultrashort intense laser fields, at a time scale that allows for the study, and the manipulation, of chemical processes.