Multiple ionization of He, Ne, and Ar by fast protons and antiprotons

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Abstract
Single and multiple ionization of He, Ne, and Ar has been studied experimentally by impact of fast protons and antiprotons. The single-ionization cross sections obtained with protons and antiprotons are found to be the same. The double-ionization cross sections obtained with antiprotons, however, are much larger than those obtained with protons at equal velocity. This difference is found for all three gases but the effect is largest for He and Ne, where the difference is about a factor of 2 at 1 MeV/amu. The difference is discussed in terms of interference between two collision mechanisms which both result in double-electron escape. Experimental information on the magnitude of the interference term is obtained by inclusion of double-ionization data, partly obtained in this work, for fast electron and α-particle impact. For triple ionization of Ne, we also find that antiprotons yield much larger cross sections than protons do. Identical cross sections, however, are found for triple ionization of Ar with protons and antiprotons. This is believed to be due to the fact that triple ionization of Ar is mainly a consequence of a single vacancy produced in an inner shell followed by electronic rearrangement. This observation supports the interpretation that the observed charge effect is due to an interference effect in the outermost shell.