Excitation of Swift Heavy Ions in Foil Targets. III. Initial Populations of Rydberg States

Abstract

Results are reviewed of experiments in which Rydberg states with high principal quantum numbers (n :<:: 20) are excited by foil targets in transmitted heavy ions. A uniform procedure is described for analysis of the decays downstream of such states using a Monte Carlo method. Previously observed X-ray decays of 130 MeV Br Rydberg ions into L vacancies are analysed and numerical populations of initially generated states are deduced. It is found that the initial states may be described as mainly statistical, i.e. all substates having equal weights, with 63% of initial ions in such states. Some X-ray lines are found to come from high-n (:<:: 50), low-/ (;S; 2) states. There is evidence for an unknown post-foil mechanism feeding the 3s electron state.