STATE-SELECTIVE CAPTURE IN COLLISIONS OF PROTONS WITH NOBLE-GASES

We have measured coincidences between neutral H atoms and Lyman-alpha photons for collisions between 50-keV protons and noble gases as a function of the projectile scattering angle. The coincidences are dominated by capture to the 2p state of the projectile. While the total cross sections depend strongly on the target, the shape of the angular distribution of the differential cross sections was found to depend only weakly on that parameter. The data indicate that electrons are captured predominantly from the outermost shell of the target atom for the collision systems studied here.