Measurements and a model for the enhancement of Lyman-α radiation following foil-induced dissociation of molecular ions

Measurements of the enhanced Lyman-α radiation following beam-foil excitation of H2/sup ts+/ and H3/sup ts+/ molecular ions are presented for incident ion energies of 0.2--1.75 MeV/amu. The enhancement is with respect to radiation observed with the use of incident protons of the same velocity. This enhancement is small (factors of 2--10) at large-foil dwell times (greater than 1 fs), and large (factors of 50) at small dwell times (less than 1 fs). A phenomenological model which fits the data for both dwell-time regions, and at the same time fits other results of the transmission of H2/sup ts+/ and of the production of H0 atoms from incident H2/sup ts+/ ions, is presented