Importance of the electron capture to the continuum mechanism in heavy-particle collisions of He2+ with C5+(1s) -: art. no. 022702

The ionization process due to collision of He2+ with C5+(1s) is investigated using a continuum-distorted-wave eikonal-initial-state approximation. Total, single-, and double-differential cross sections are presented for collision energies from 30 keV/u to 10 MeV/u. A good agreement is obtained between the current total cross section and the previous predictions. The ionization mechanism of electron capture to the projectile continuum (ECC) is found to be important in the lower collision energy range, whose contributions to the total cross section are evaluated to be approximately 12, 9, and 7% for the projectile energies of 125 keV/u,500 keV/u, and 1 MeV/u respectively. These large ECC contributions could be interpreted by the velocity matching between the projectile ion and the electron initially bound to the target.