Strong Isotope Effects on the Charge Transfer in Slow Collisions of He~(2+) with Atomic Hydrogen, Deuterium, and Tritium

摘要

Probabilities and cross sections for charge transfer by He~(2+) impact on atomic hydrogen (H), deuterium (D), and tritium (T) at low collision energies are calculated. The results are obtained using an ab initio theory, which solves the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. For the H target, excellent agreement is achieved between the present and previous results. Differences by orders of magnitude are observed between the cross sections for H, D, and T. A method is introduced to separate the contributions of charge-transfer mechanisms due to radial and rotational coupling. The large differences observed for H, D, and T are attributed to isotope effects in the rotational coupling mechanism.