Excitation of Autoionization States and Electronic Stopping Powers at Collisions of Slow Ions with a Solid

It has been shown that the excitation of autoionization states at collisions of keV ions with a solid is decisive for inelastic energy loss and, correspondingly, the electronic stopping power dE/dx. It has been proposed to estimate the electronic stopping power dE/dx using the relation of cross sections for the excitation of autoionization states to ionization cross sections. When ionization cross sections are unknown, scaling is used to calculate ionization cross sections at the excitation of the L and M shells. A threshold dependence of the electronic stopping power dE/dx on the energy of bombarding ions has been predicted.