Atomic excitation during the impact of ions and clusters

Abstract

As we feel more confident in our ability to make realistic simulations of ion-solid interactions with molecular dynamics, we shall try to include within the calculations more than just the Newtonian equations of motion. One obvious new frontier is the inclusion of atomic excitation effects, which may be first introduced by semiclassical approximations in which known or estimated excitation and decay probabilities are included. In this paper I shall provide a brief description of what we have achieved already, what sorts of improvements we have in mind for the immediate future, and which experiments should be done to provide stringent tests of our models.

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