FluorineKx-ray spectra for projectiles moving at 0.5 to 1.5 MeV/amu in gas, foil, and solid targets

High-resolution x-ray spectral measurements are used to determine the relative intensity of x-ray transitions for ions such as fluorine excited in collisions with various-pressure Ne, Ar, and Kr gas targets, thin carbon foils, and a thick carbon slab. The relative intensities are observed to be nonlinearly dependent on both target density and incident charge $Z$. These effects are attributed to strong collisional quenching of initial states by subsequent large-impact-parameter collisions. The data permit extraction of the total quenching cross sections (${\sigma }_Q$) for fast fluorine ions in various states. A strong enhancement of the relative intensity of $2{}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P_1^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ is observed for ${\mathrm{F}}^{7+}$ and ${\mathrm{O}}^{6+}$ projectiles. This strong enhancement is attributed to selective excitation of metastable states in the beam, i.e., $1s2s{}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}S_1^{}{}_{}{}^{}$, into the $1s2p{}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P_1^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ state. Finally, the data for foil and solid targets are used to obtain information on the excitation states of ions moving in solids.