Helium ionization electron emission

The main aim of this paper is to review the CDW-EIS model used commonly in the decription of heavy particle collisions. A theoretical description of the CDW-EIS model is presented in section 2. In section 3 we discuss the suitablity of the CDW-EIS model to study the characteristics of ultra-low and low energy electrons ejected from fast heavy-ion helium, neon and argon atom collisions. There are some distinct characteristics based on two-centre electron emission that may be identified in this spectrum. This study also allows us to examine the dependence of the cross sections on the initial state wave function of multi-electron targets and as such is important in aiding our understanding of the ionization process. 

The type of detector to be employed determines the nature of the carrier gas which may be used. Argon is used with the argon ionization detector. Helium is used with flame-ionization, thermal conductivity, thermionic emission, and cross-section detectors. Hydrogen may be used in thermal conductivity detectors to give maximum sensitivity. Probably the commonest and cheapest carrier gas is nitrogen, which can be used with flame-ionization, electron capture, thermal conductivity, and cross-section detectors. Argon-methane mixtures may be used with electron capture detectors. 

In spite of all the new approaches which illuminated the outer regions of the atom, the center or nucleus of the atom continued to remain a bundle of uncertainties. Something of the composition of the nuclei of a few elements was already known. This information came from a study of the spontaneous disintegration of radium and other radioactive elements, such as thorium, polonium, uranium, and radon. These elements break down of their own accord into simpler elements. Soon after the Curies discovery of radium, Rutherford and Frederick Soddy, his student and collaborator, had found that the spontaneous breaking down of radium resulted in the emission of three types of rays and particles. Radium ejected alpha particles (ionized helium atoms), beta particles (electrons), and gamma rays (similar to X-rays). In radioactive elements, at least, it was believed that the nucleus contained electrons, protons, and electrified helium particles. 

This system forms highly ionized so-called Penning mixtures [12,13]. The higher excited states of Hj are partly stable and partly unstable, depending on the quantum numbers of the electron present. The stable excited states have, however, only very shallow minima of the potential curves [14]. That is the reason why no spectrum of Hj is observed for the helium plasma jet. The argon excited neutrals, on the other hand, cannot ionize hydrogen atoms or molecules, but could produce excited H2 molecules, which can be detected by optical emission spectroscopy. 

Electrons are showered onto the tip when ionization takes place. These come directly from the helium atoms ionizing close to the edge of the ionization region, from occasional impacts between ions and neutral gas atoms, and from secondary emission at the screen. 

The mode of radioactive decay is dependent upon the particular nuclide involved. We have seen in Ch. 1 that radioactive decay can be characterized by a-, jS-, and y-radiation. Alpha-decay is the emission of helium nuclei. Beta-decay is the creation and emission of either electrons or positrons, or the process of electron capture. Gamma-decay is the emission of electromagnetic radiation where the transition occurs between energy levels of the same nucleus. An additional mode of radioactive decay is that of internal conversion in which a nucleus loses its energy by interaction of the nuclear field with that of the orbital electrons, causing ionization of an electron instead of y-ray emission. A mode of radioactive decay which is observed only in the heaviest nuclei is that of spontaneous fission in which the nucleus dissociates spontaneously into two roughly equal parts. This fission is accompanied by the emission of electromagnetic radiation and of neutrons. In the last decade also some unusual decay modes have been observed for nuclides very far from the stability line, namely neutron emission and proton emission. A few very rare decay modes like C-emission have also been observed. 

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