2022/08/21 by A. Jacob, C. Müller, Jacob, A. +3
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Atomic and Molecular Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2208.09812
openalex publication_date 2022/08/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is generally assumed that for ionization processes, which occur in slow atomic collisions, the coupling of the colliding system to the quantum radiation field is irrelevant. Here we show, however, that -- contrary to expectations -- such a coupling can strongly influence ionization of a beam of atomic species A slowly traversing a gas of atomic species B excited by a weak laser field. Moreover, this coupling becomes even more important when the collision velocity increases, getting comparable or exceeding the typical electron orbiting velocities in A and B. Our results imply furthermore that the Breit interaction can, in fact, dominate over the Coulomb interaction at very low energies.