Two-Center Double-Capture Interference in Fast He~(2+) + H_2 Collisions

摘要

We report the first observation of Young-type interference effects in a two-electron transfer process. These effects change strongly as the projectile velocity changes in fast (1.2 and 2.0 MeV) He~(2+) + H_2 collisions as manifested in strong variations of the double-electron capture rates with the H_2 orientation. This is consistent with fully quantum mechanical calculations, which ignore sequential electron transfer, and a simple projectile de Broglie wave picture assuming that two-electron transfer probabilities are higher in collisions where the projectile passes close to either one of the H_2 nuclei.