11
Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–31 Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules G. Laricchia*, S. Armitage, D.E. Leslie, M. Sz"ui ! nska, P. Van Reeth Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK Abstract Recent advances in the field of positron-induced ionization and positronium collisions are reviewed. Major outstanding problems are highlighted. r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Positron; Positronium; Annihilation; Positron impact excitation; Positron impact ionization; Positronium formation; Positronium total cross-sections; Positronium fragmentation 1. Introduction One hundred years since the birth of Dirac and 70 years since his prediction of antimatter, positrons and positronium (Ps, the bound state of an electron and its antimatter counterpart, the positron) are widely em- ployed, e.g. from the exploration of fundamental phenomena in atomic (e.g. Andersen et al., 1998, 2000, 2002) and condensed matter physics (e.g. Schultz and Lynn, 1988) to the diagnostics of electronic and structural properties of materials (e.g. Triftsh . auser et al., 2001) and of living biological systems (e.g. Sharma and Piwnica-Worms, 2002). Among the first experiments to be carried out in atomic physics with monoenergetic positron beams were measurements of total cross-sections from room temperature gases. Increasing intensities of positron beams, achieved with better sources and especially better moderators, have permitted the study of dilute targets (e.g. H and the alkali atoms) which allow more stringent comparisons with theory. Investigations now encompass measure- ments of partial and differential cross-sections, near- threshold behaviour and molecular excitations, the latter (e.g. Sullivan et al., 2001, 2002) performed with a beam possessing room-temperature energy resolution (Gilbert et al., 1997). In this brief overview, we shall concentrate on positron-induced ionization processes and positro- nium collisions. The interested reader is referred to e.g. Laricchia (2002), Charlton and Humberston (2001), and Andersen et al. (1998, 2000, 2002) for further information. 2. Positron collisions 2.1. Ps formation Due to the partial cancellation at low energies of the static and polarization interactions in positron–atom/ molecule scattering, a pronounced minimum arises in the total cross-sections (Q t ) of many gaseous targets just below the threshold for positronium formation, E Ps : A marked increase of Q t is thus evident in most cases near E Ps ; as a result of the importance of this channel. The reaction may be represented by e + +A-Ps+A + with threshold E Ps ¼ E i 2B; where E i is the target ionization energy and B the Ps binding energy (6.8 eV/n 2 ), n being the principal quantum number. The Ps formation cross-sections, Q Ps ; integrated over all quantum states of Ps and the ion, have been measured for all the inert atoms (Moxom et al., 1993, 1994; Overton et al., 1993), some molecules (Moxom et al., 1993; Laricchia and Moxom, 1993; Laricchia et al., 1993), atomic hydrogen (Zhou et al., 1997 and references ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-20-7679-7809; fax: +44- 20-7679-2564. E-mail address: [email protected] (G. Laricchia). 0969-806X/03/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0969-806X(03)00248-2

Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

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Page 1: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–31

Positron and positronium interactions with atomsand molecules

G. Laricchia*, S. Armitage, D.E. Leslie, M. Sz"ui !nska, P. Van Reeth

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

Abstract

Recent advances in the field of positron-induced ionization and positronium collisions are reviewed. Major

outstanding problems are highlighted.

r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Positron; Positronium; Annihilation; Positron impact excitation; Positron impact ionization; Positronium formation;

Positronium total cross-sections; Positronium fragmentation

1. Introduction

One hundred years since the birth of Dirac and 70

years since his prediction of antimatter, positrons and

positronium (Ps, the bound state of an electron and its

antimatter counterpart, the positron) are widely em-

ployed, e.g. from the exploration of fundamental

phenomena in atomic (e.g. Andersen et al., 1998, 2000,

2002) and condensed matter physics (e.g. Schultz and

Lynn, 1988) to the diagnostics of electronic and

structural properties of materials (e.g. Triftsh.auser

et al., 2001) and of living biological systems (e.g.

Sharma and Piwnica-Worms, 2002). Among the first

experiments to be carried out in atomic physics with

monoenergetic positron beams were measurements of

total cross-sections from room temperature gases.

Increasing intensities of positron beams, achieved with

better sources and especially better moderators, have

permitted the study of dilute targets (e.g. H and the

alkali atoms) which allow more stringent comparisons

with theory. Investigations now encompass measure-

ments of partial and differential cross-sections, near-

threshold behaviour and molecular excitations, the latter

(e.g. Sullivan et al., 2001, 2002) performed with a beam

possessing room-temperature energy resolution (Gilbert

et al., 1997). In this brief overview, we shall concentrate

on positron-induced ionization processes and positro-

nium collisions. The interested reader is referred to

e.g. Laricchia (2002), Charlton and Humberston (2001),

and Andersen et al. (1998, 2000, 2002) for further

information.

2. Positron collisions

2.1. Ps formation

Due to the partial cancellation at low energies of the

static and polarization interactions in positron–atom/

molecule scattering, a pronounced minimum arises in

the total cross-sections (Qt) of many gaseous targets just

below the threshold for positronium formation, EPs: Amarked increase of Qt is thus evident in most cases near

EPs; as a result of the importance of this channel. Thereaction may be represented by e++A-Ps+A+ with

threshold EPs ¼ Ei2B; where Ei is the target ionization

energy and B the Ps binding energy (6.8 eV/n2), n being

the principal quantum number.

The Ps formation cross-sections, QPs; integrated overall quantum states of Ps and the ion, have been

measured for all the inert atoms (Moxom et al., 1993,

1994; Overton et al., 1993), some molecules (Moxom

et al., 1993; Laricchia andMoxom, 1993; Laricchia et al.,

1993), atomic hydrogen (Zhou et al., 1997 and references

ARTICLE IN PRESS

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-20-7679-7809; fax: +44-

20-7679-2564.

E-mail address: [email protected] (G. Laricchia).

0969-806X/03/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/S0969-806X(03)00248-2

Page 2: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

therein), alkali atoms (Zhou et al., 1994; Surdutovich

et al., 1996, 2002) and Mg (Stein et al., 1996, 1998).

Good convergence exists among recent theories and

the experimental QPs in the case of atomic hydrogen

(Zhou et al., 1997). For He, good agreement between

experiment (Overton et al., 1993) and theory (Campbell

et al., 1998) exists at the intermediate energy range,

however discrepancies still remain both near threshold

(Van Reeth and Humberston, 1999) and at high energies

(Campbell et al., 1998). In the case of He, the coupled-

pseudostate calculation of Campbell et al. (1998)

suggests that the ground state Ps formation dominates

the cross-section, with only B20% of Ps formed in the

excited state. In the case of the alkali atoms, Ps

formation is an exothermic process, so it is expected

that QPs-N as E-0: Calculations of Walters et al.(1995) have predicted a collapse of ground-state Ps

formation in going from Li to Cs with a simultaneous

increase in the excited state Ps formation. This predic-

tion awaits experimental confirmation. As shown in

Fig. 1, the recent measurements for Li (Surdutovich

et al., 2002) agree reasonably well with the calculation of

McAlinden et al. (1997), however those obtained for Na

(Surdutovich et al., 2002) remain significantly higher

than the theoretical ones (Campbell et al., 1998) below

B2 eV.

In Fig. 2, the various QPs for the heavier noble gases

are shown. Among them, the recent QPs extracted from

total ionization cross-sections (Laricchia et al., 2002)

and direct ionization cross-sections (Moxom et al., 1996;

Kara et al., 1997) are also included. There are many

discrepancies among all available data, however the

agreement of the data of Laricchia et al. with the results

of Jin et al. (1994) for Ne and Ar, which were measured

and normalized with different methods, is encouraging.

The very recent measurements for Ar by Sullivan et al.

(2002), performed with the room-temperature energy

resolution beam, also agree very well both on the energy

dependence and the magnitude of the first peak.

As shown in Fig. 2, QPs of Laricchia et al. (2002)

develop a double-peak structure for Ar, Kr and Xe. The

first peaks, approximately at twice EPsðn ¼ 1Þ; have beenattributed to the Ps formation in the ground state,

whereas the second peaks, located at approximately

twice EPsðn ¼ 2Þ; might be a manifestation of Ps

formation in excited states. Theoretical and direct

experimental investigations of this hypothesis are

awaited. The theory of McAlinden and Walters (1992),

depicted in the figure, includes Ps formation in the

ground state only.

2.2. Scaling formula for ionization

An empirical scaling formula has recently been found

by Sz"ui !nska et al. (2002) which factors out the targetdependence of the shape and magnitude of positron-and

electron-impact cross-sections. Cross-sections for Ps

formation or direct single ionization fall broadly on a

common curve, QxðE=EthÞ; when scaled in terms of theircorresponding threshold energy ðEthÞ; i.e. QA

x ðE=EAthÞ=

ðQAx Þmax ¼ QB

x ðE=EBthÞ=ðQ

Bx Þmax; where x refers to a

particular process for a given projectile and A, B refer

to any two atoms. E is the incident projectile energy and

ðQAx Þmax the maximum value of QA

x : This parametriza-tion of ionization cross-sections depends on two

parameters Eth and ðQxÞmax but it may be further

reduced to depend only on one parameter, since ðQxÞmax(for atoms belonging to the same column of the periodic

table) is found to correlate well with Eth: This, as shownin Fig. 3, could be approximated by ðQxÞmax ¼a expð�bEthÞ; where a; b are constants which are the

same for atoms belonging to the given column of the

periodic table. From the above, a simple scaling formula

was obtained, QAx ðE=EA

thÞ ¼ QxðE=EthÞexp½�bðEBth �

ECth�; which can be used to estimate a cross-section for

any atom (A) if the ðQxÞmax values for any two atoms,belonging to the same column, are available for the

determination of b: Further analysis of data is in

ARTICLE IN PRESS

Fig. 1. Positronium formation cross-sections for positron–Li and positron–Na scattering (Surdutovich et al., 2002).

G. Laricchia et al. / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–3122

Page 3: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

progress for these and other combinations of projectiles

and targets with an investigation of possible mechanisms

underlying these factorisations. (Note also the recent

progress in semi-empirical models for electron-projectile

ionization (e.g. Kim et al., 1998; Deutsch et al., 1997).

2.3. Direct ionization

Using different techniques, several measurements of

the single direct ionization cross-sections by positron-

impact have been made for various targets, including H

(Jones et al., 1993) and reasonable agreement on both

the magnitude and energy dependence has been found.

The energy loss experiments (e.g. Mori and Sueoka,

1994) do not extend to very high energies and the cross-

sections were normalized using the values of the total

scattering cross-section obtained in other experiments.

The coincidence method, relying on detecting correlated

ions and scattered positrons (Knudsen et al., 1990;

Jacobsen et al., 1995; Moxom et al., 1996; Kara et al.,

1997), can be extended to higher energies, typically

1000 eV, where normalization is performed to known

electron impact ionization data. This normalization

procedure is based on the fact that at sufficiently high

energy the first Born approximation predicts that each

individual ionization cross-section for positron-impact

and for electron-impact should merge. A recent inves-

tigation (Van Reeth et al., 2002) has shown that a source

of uncertainties in the magnitude of the positron data

was due to differences between the various electron-

impact ionization cross-sections for a given atom.

In Fig. 4, the renormalized experimental data from

Moxom et al. (1996) and Kara et al. (1997) for the other

noble gases are presented together with the results of

Jacobsen et al. (1995) and Mori and Sueoka (1994).

Once again, the agreement in the case of Ne and Ar

between the data of Mori and Sueoka and Kara et al.

normalized by two very different methods is encoura-

ging. Also shown in Fig. 4 are the theoretical results of

Moores (1998) which are found to peak at an energy

close to the peak in the experimental results but are up

to 60% larger. Those of Campeanu et al. (2001) are in

broad agreement for both shape and magnitude in the

common energy range, except in the case of Ne.

ARTICLE IN PRESS

10 1000.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

10 1000

2

4

6

810 100

0

1

2

3

4

5

10 1000

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Pos

itron

ium

form

atio

n cr

oss-

sect

ion

(10-1

6 cm2 )

Incident energy (eV)

Ne Ar

Kr Xe

Fig. 2. Comparison of the experimental and theoretical QPs: solid curves—Laricchia et al. (2002); hollow diamonds—Charlton et al.

(1983); hollow circles—Jin et al. (1994); hollow squares—Diana et al. (1985, 1986, 1987, 1989); crosses—Fornari et al. (1983); down

hollow triangles—Stein et al. (1998) upper limit; up hollow triangles—Stein et al. (1998) lower limit; full diamonds—Sullivan et al.

(2002); dashed curves-theory of McAlinden and Walters (1992).

G. Laricchia et al. / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–31 23

Page 4: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

In the case of He and H2, high-resolution data exist

close to the ionization threshold (Ashley et al., 1996)

which reveal interesting differences with their electron-

impact counterpart. For these, the Wannier theory

predicts Qþi ðe

-ÞpE01:27 where E0 is the excess energy,

i.e. the difference between the incoming energy and the

threshold energy. In the case of positron-impact ioniza-

tion, there is no exchange between the projectile and the

ejected electron and positronium formation may com-

pete with the direct ionization channel. Consequently,

the same form for Qþi ðe

þÞ is predicted but with E02:65

(Klar, 1981). However, the energy dependence of

experimental Qþi ðe

þÞ (Ashley et al., 1996), was foundto be proportional to E01:9970:19 in the energy range

1–3 eV. A recent theory (Ihra et al., 1997) has found that

inclusion of anharmonic terms in the three-particle

potential around the Wannier configuration reproduces

the experimental data. An even more recent quantal-

semiclassical calculation of Deb and Crothers (2002),

which includes values of up to 11 for the total angular

momentum azimuthal quantum number, has also been

found to be in good agreement with the experimental

data over a wide energy range 3–10 eV. Very close to the

threshold, however, significant differences are found.

The comparison of the single ionization cross section

by e�, e+, p and p� impact reveals interesting trends as

can be seen in Fig. 5, where the single ionization cross-

sections for He by all four projectiles are plotted at equi-

velocity (note that an energy of 100 eV for the light

projectiles corresponds to approximately 0.2MeV/amu).

At the high velocity, all cross-sections are seen to merge

in accordance with the first Born approximation. At

medium velocity, close to the position of the respective

peak, the cross-sections for the heavier particles are seen

to be larger while, within each particle/antiparticle pairs,

those with the positive charge have the largest cross-

sections. This charge dependence is inverted at lower

energies, supposedly because of competition from the

electron capture channel in the case of positively charged

particles. For the heavier noble gases, similar trends are

observed but due to the increased static interaction,

trajectory effects for the light particles become more

ARTICLE IN PRESS

e+ e+

e-

e+

e-

e+

Eth

4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 200.1

1

10

Eth

10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26

Max

imum

val

ue o

f Q

i

Max

imum

val

ue o

f Q

i

Max

imum

val

ue o

f Q

Ps

0.1

1

10

Eth

5 10 15 20 25 30

1

10

ArKr

Ne

Xe

Ne

KrXe

(c)

(a)

Noble GasesHalogenscolumn VIcolumn Vcolumn IV

(b)

Ar

HeHe

e+ e+

e-

Fig. 3. Maximum value of the cross-section plotted versus relevant threshold energy, Eth: (a) direct ionization of the inert gases by

positron impact; (b) Ps formation for the inert gases; (c) single ionization by electron impact for the inert gases, halogens and atoms

belonging to the IV, V and VI columns.

G. Laricchia et al. / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–3124

Page 5: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

important, leading to an earlier merging of the electron

and anti-proton cross-sections than that of the positron

and proton (Paludan et al., 1997 and references therein).

The first triple-differential measurements of positron-

impact ionization have recently become available for a

H2 target (K .ov!er and Laricchia, 1998; K .ov!er et al.,

2001). At 100 eV incident energy, a small broad peak has

been observed in the spectrum of electrons ejected at 0

in coincidence with positrons scattered into the same

direction, indicating the occurrence of electron-capture-

to-the-continuum, a phenomenon first predicted for

positron impact by Brauner and Briggs (1986). At 50 eV

impact energy, a shift of around 1.6 eV has been

observed in comparison with a theory (Fiol et al.,

2001). Since this calculation does not include the

molecular degrees of freedom of the target, it has been

conjectured that the shift might be an indication of

molecular excitation/dissociation (K .ov!er et al., 2001).

2.4. Annihilation

Very recently, measurements of the energy depen-

dence of the annihilation cross-section have been

reported for a number of molecules (Gilbert et al.,

2002). The data are shown in Fig. 6. In some cases,

peaks are observed at energies lower than the thresholds

for vibrational excitation. The energy downshifts of

these peaks have been interpreted as being consistent

with the presence of long-lived vibrational Feshbach

resonances (Gribakin, 2000). However, it remains

ARTICLE IN PRESS

100 10000.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

10 100 10000

1

2

3

4

5

6

KrX Data

10 100 10000

1

2

3

4 Ar

10 100 10000

2

4

6

8

10

Xe

positron incident energy (eV)

cros

s-se

ctio

n (1

0-16 c

m2 )

Ne

Fig. 4. Comparison of the renormalized direct ionization cross-sections: full circles—Kara et al. (1997) and Moxom et al. (1996);

hollow circles—Jacobsen et al. (1995); hollow triangles—-Mori and Sueoka (1994); dashes curve—Moores (1998); solid curve—

Campeanu et al. (2001).

MeV/amu0.01 0.1 1

σ i+(1

0-16

cm2 )

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Fig. 5. The direct ionization cross-section with equivelocity

projectiles on He (Knudsen and Reading, 1992): solid line—e+;

dashed line—e�; chain—p+; symbols—p�.

G. Laricchia et al. / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–31 25

Page 6: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

unclear whether the existence of such resonances is

necessary to explain the very large annihilation rates

from molecules with a high density of molecular and

electronic excitation thresholds. This is because an

increased annihilation probability near threshold en-

ergies might arise from the temporary ‘‘trapping’’ of the

e+ near the target-electron(s) for the duration of virtual

processes (Laricchia and Wikin, 1997; Van Reeth and

Humberston, 1998). Future investigations of the energy

dependence of the annihilation probability from simple

atomic targets should help in resolving current

controversies.

3. Ps collisions

3.1. Introduction and experimental arrangement

Theoretically, Ps-atom scattering is a difficult problem

to treat due to the fact that both the projectile and target

are composite objects with internal structure. Experi-

mentally, information on Ps collisions near thermal

energies have been obtained indirectly using methods

such as angular correlation of annihilation radiation

(ACAR) (Coleman et al., 1994; Nagashima et al., 1998)

and Doppler broadening (Skalsey et al., 1998). The first

measures the angular deviation from co-linearity of the

two annihilation quanta predominantly emitted in

positron annihilation, whereas the second uses the shift

in energy of the gammas due to the momentum of the

e+–e� pair. At higher energies, cross-sections have

been measured directly using a Ps beam, produced by

neutralizing a positron beam in a gaseous target via the

charge exchange reaction (e++A-Ps+A+) (Laricchia

et al., 1987). Due to the finite lifetime of Ps, the beam at

atomic velocities is composed of the longer lived o-Ps.

To a first approximation, the kinetic energy of the Ps

beam, TPs; is tuneable via, TPs ¼ Eþ2EPs; where Eþ is

the positron kinetic energy and EPs; the Ps formationthreshold energy.

Using a time-of-flight method, Zafar et al. (1991)

identified ground- and excited-state atoms in the Ps

beam formed from He and Ar. The same method has

been used to measure Ps total-and projectile-ionization

cross-sections. In the latter case, the longitudinal energy

distributions of the residual positrons have, very

recently, also been extracted, as discussed below.

3.2. Ps beam production

The Ps beam production efficiency depends on the

differential Ps formation cross-section, dsPs=dO; and thetotal cross-section, sT; for both e+ and Ps scattering

according to the equation:

ePsp f1� expð�rlþsTþÞg1

sTþ

Z y0

0

dsPsdO

sin y dy

( )

� expð�rlPssTPsÞ;

where the first term corresponds to the fraction of

scattered e+, the second to the probability of forming Ps

within the angular range 02y0 and the third to the

transmission probability of Ps through a gas of number

density r and length lPs: Garner et al. (1996) investigatedthe conversion of a positron- into a Ps-beam via charge

exchange in H2, He and Ar at Ps kinetic energy in the

range 30–120 eV at gas pressures up to 14mTorr.

Recently, Leslie et al. (2002) have found that the range

of Ps kinetic energy attainable can be extended at least

up to 250 eV by using N2 as the production gas. The

results of this study are shown in Fig. 7. Although H2

remains the better converter at lower energies, N2

becomes more efficient as the Ps energy is increased.

3.3. Ps total cross-section

Fig. 8 shows a plot of the Ps–He total cross-section,

the simplest target to be addressed both experimentally

ARTICLE IN PRESS

Fig. 6. Positron annihilation rate, Zeff ; for (a) butane; (b)propane; and (c) ethane; as a function of positron energy

(Gilbert et al., 2002).

G. Laricchia et al. / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–3126

Page 7: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

and theoretically with Ps projectiles. Shown in the plot

are the direct beam data of Garner et al. (1996, 2000),

estimates for the momentum transfer cross-sections

(Coleman et al., 1994; Nagashima et al., 1998; Skalsey

et al., 1998) and theoretical determinations by Black-

wood et al. (1999), Biswas and Adhikari (1999), Sarkar

and Ghosh (1997) and Basu et al. (2001b). Below 10 eV,

apparent discrepancies are found, however, Blackwood

et al. (2002) have pointed out that the comparison of the

momentum transfer cross-sections with the total cross-

sections calculations is not appropriate since, even at

very low energies, the differential cross-section may be

not isotropic. This finding is in qualitative agreement

with the earlier results of Garner et al. (2000) who found

significant forward scattering effects.

3.4. Ps–He projectile ionization cross-section

Among the processes that can occur in Ps–He

collisions, projectile ionization of Ps is thought to

dominate the scattering process at intermediate energies

(Biswas and Adhikari, 1999; Blackwood et al., 1999) and

to play an important role in the slowing down of

positrons in dense media (Laricchia and Jacobsen,

1986). Recently, this process has been observed (Armi-

tage et al., 2002) and its cross-section has been

ARTICLE IN PRESS

Fig. 7. Variation of the Ps production efficiency, ePs versus target gas pressure and Ps energy for H2 and N2.

Incident Ps energy (eV)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

Cro

ss-s

ecti

on

(x10

-20 m

2 )

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14Garner et al 1996Garner et al 2000Nagashima et al 1998Skalsey et al 1998Coleman et al 1994Biswas & Adhikari 1998Blackwood et al 1999Basu et al 2001

Fig. 8. Experimental and theoretical results for Ps–He total cross-sections. Those of Coleman et al., Skalsey et al. and Nagashima et al.

are for the momentum transfer cross-section.

G. Laricchia et al. / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–31 27

Page 8: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

measured. The results are shown in Fig. 9. The

uncertainty (+8/�(20–30)%) is associated with

the determination of the detection efficiency for posi-

trons and Ps (Armitage et al., 2003). As can be seen from

the figure, the present Ps–He projectile ionization cross-

section measurements are in good agreement with the

coupled-state theory of Blackwood et al. (1999). How-

ever, as shown in Fig. 8, a significant discrepancy exists

with this theory in the case of the total cross-section.

Blackwood et al. underestimate the beam total cross-

section measurements (Garner et al., 2000) above 10 eV

by up to 30%, suggesting either an underestimate of the

elastic cross-section and/or of target inelastic effects.

Estimates of the cross-sections for He excitation and

ionization from Ps impact have been made by Black-

wood et al. (1999) within the first Born approximation

and found to be negligible at these energies. Recent work

on Ps–H, He scattering (Basu et al., 2001a, b; Blackwood

et al., 2002) indeed points to the importance of including

(virtual and real) target inelastic channels in Ps scattering

theory. Further studies into target inelastic effects would

now seem to be urgently needed in order to progress with

the understanding of the Ps–He collision system.

Although the predicted total cross-sections of Biswas

and Adhikari (1999) are in much better agreement with

the beam measurements, the projectile ionization cross-

section overestimates the measurements made in this

study by roughly a factor of two.

The Ps–He projectile ionization study was undertaken

using a time-of-flight detection system, enabling a

measure of the longitudinal energy distributions of

the residual positrons from Ps ionization, as shown in

Fig. 10. The data have been summed into 1 eV bins and

normalised to unity for shape comparison. A peak is

apparent just below half of the residual energy

(Er ¼ TPs26:8 eV), which is suggestive of electron-loss-to-the-continuum (Ludlow and Walters, 2001).

4. Summary and outlook

Concerning positron collisions, the e+–H problem

appears reasonably well understood but problems arise

already with He and, among the alkali atoms, with Na.

Recent studies of Ps formation from the inert atoms

display a degree of convergence, however, structure is

observed which is not fully understood. It might arise

from excited state Ps formation and direct measure-

ments of this process would be valuable. A simple

empirical scaling formula for ionization cross-sections

has been found, the physical basis of which is unclear.

Further investigations with different types of projectiles

and ionization processes might aid future developments.

Differential ionization measurements are powerful

probes of collision dynamics, hence the unexplained

energy shift observed in the energy spectrum of the

ejected electrons from H2 should be examined further.

Measurements of the energy dependence of the annihila-

tion cross-section from simple atoms are needed to

further our understanding of such a fundamental

physical process.

Regarding collisions with Ps projectiles, direct QT

measurements at low E are needed to guide theory on

the importance of virtual target inelastic collisions. The

angular and energy distributions need to be separated in

Ps fragmentation measurements. Theoretical and experi-

mental studies of target inelastic processes (with and

without Ps fragmentation) should begin.

ARTICLE IN PRESS

Energy (eV)

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Ps P

roje

ctile

Ion

izat

ion

Cro

ss-S

ectio

n (1

0-20 m

2 )

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

Fig. 9. Ps projectile ionization cross-sections: solid line—Blackwood et al. (1999); dashed curve—Biswas and Adhikari (1999);

Armitage et al. (2002a): squares—upper limit; full circles—lowest limit; triangles—average.

G. Laricchia et al. / Radiation Physics and Chemistry 68 (2003) 21–3128

Page 9: Positron and positronium interactions with atoms and molecules

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the European Union (EPIC), The

Royal Society (ESEP) and EPSRC (GR/S16041/01) for

supporting positron research at UCL. GL also wishes to

thank the conference organizers for their invitation and

kind hospitality.

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