A theoretical treatment of low energy ion back-scattering from a row of gold atoms

Abstract

A theoretical study of the scattering of an energetic He ion from a (110) row of gold atoms, to which it is incident normally, has been made. Single collisions of the ion with one gold atom or a succession of two collisions with adjacent gold atoms were investigated, using aBom-Mayer potential to define the interaction and approximate analytical expressions for the scattering equations for this potential form. The predicted trimodel dependence of the energy of the backscattered ion as a function of impact Parameter on a gold atom is shown to agree well with computer based calculations of the exact ion trajectories.