Double resonant neutralization in hyperthermal energy alkali ion scattering at clean metal surfaces

Resonant neutralization of hyperthermal Na+ ions impinging on clean Cu(100) surfaces is studied, focussing on long lived electronic interactions involving the projectile and a target atom. Specific trajectories are considered where the incident particle undergoes multiple collisions within the first surface layers, interacting simultaneously with several target atoms, which leads to single emission of a surface atom that can resonantly exchange charge with both the solid and the projectile. The system is described via a semi-empirical, one-electron potential that includes the effect of a plane metal surface, with projected band gap, the projectile, whose charge state will be eventually investigated, and the substrate atom. On this basis, a model Hamiltonian of the Anderson-Newns type is constructed and the calculated neutralization probability is compared with the angle resolved neutral fraction measured by Keller et al. [C.A. Keller, C.A. DiRubio, G.A. Kimmel, B.H. Cooper, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75 (1995) 1654].