The importance of continuum eigenstates in electron spectroscopy

Abstract

The four characteristic features in the electron spectra from fast ion-atom collisions, the soft electron peak, the cusp, the electron loss peak and the binary encounter peak are strongly influenced by one or both of the atomic (or ionic) potentials acting on the electron, calling for a nonpertu~ative treatment of the respective final-state interaction. Recent experimental results concerning the peak as~met~ and peak structures are reviewed and interpreted within the available theoretical models.