Study of the beam-foil excitation mechanism with the use of chlorine projectiles, 2-10 MeV

Beam-foil excitation of chlorine projectiles has been studied by means of optical spectrometry, at projectile energies ranging from 2 to 10 MeV. The relative populations of various levels in ClV through ClVIII have been measured as functions of the projectile energy. It is concluded that for ClVII and ClVIII, the $3p$ and $3d$ terms are populated entirely through molecular-orbital (MO) electron promotions. High-lying levels of these charge states are excited by means of pickup of electrons from the valence band of the solid. Intermediate levels are populated through multiple inner-shell processes as well as from valence-band electron pickup. For ClV and ClVI, most of the levels are excited predominantly by pickup of electrons from the valence band. However, for some of the valence-shell levels in ClVI, fairly strong contributions from MO processes are found at higher projectile energies. No evidence has been observed for direct Coulomb excitation.