X rays from relaxation of slow highly charged ions hitting thin metallic foils: emission depth and time

Nanotechnological devices are reaching the size of few molecules and there is a quest for new nanoscale materials. It has been prompted already in the eighties that the high potential energy carried by highly charged ions (HCIs) might be exploited for surface modifications . For example, the use of potential sputtering for nanostructuring would avoid unwanted damage caused by fast ions. Therefore, the knowledge of the exact time and depth scale for the energy deposition is essential.
Apart from the work reported in, there are very few direct experimental determinations of the relaxation time in the bulk. Recently, we introduced a method to determine the relaxation time of the innermost vacancies for highly ionized heavy ions moving through the bulk . The method compares the intensities of photons emitted through the front and back-side of a thin metal foil. Using foils with known thickness and x-ray absorption cross-sections, we obtained directly the mean x-ray emission depth, and thereafter the mean relaxation time.
The experiment was performed at the Manne Siegbahn Laboratory in Stockholm. Two Si(Li) detectors were used to measure X-rays emitted following the impact of 8.5xq keV and 23.5xq keV Pbq+ ions (q=53-58) on thin Ta foils oriented 45o relative to the ion-beam direction. This geometry allowed simultaneous detection of photons that escape through the back and the front surface of the foil.
The difference of the intensities of front- and back-side x-ray spectra is caused by different path lengths through the absorbing material (Ta foil) as well as by different detection efficiencies of the two Si(Li) detectors. The fitting procedure is illustrated in Fig.1, clearly showing that it is necessary to correct both spectra for the proper absorption by the Ta foil.
The experimental results of the emission depth are combined with a trajectory simulation to obtain the slowing down of the ion in the solid, to get the range and to convert the length scale to a time scale. We found that the relaxation time ranges from 30-60 fs.
The extracted mean relaxation time is compared with the prediction of the rate-equations model that incorporates radiative and non-radiative transitions, combined with a molecular orbital (MO) calculation for the Pb-Ta collision system which gives the projectile levels that are filled in close collisions with target atoms. The calculated mean relaxation time is found to be in fair agreement with the experimental results.