Interaction of relativistic H- ions with thin foils

The response of relativistic H- ions to thin carbon foils was investigated for beam energies ranging from 226 MeV to 800 MeV. For the foil thicknesses we have studied, ranging from 15 to 300 μg/cm2, an appreciable fraction of the H- beam survives intact, some H- ions are stripped down to protons, and the remainder is distributed over the states of H0. This experiment is different from the low energy studies in that the projectile velocity is comparable to the speed of light, leading to an interaction time of typically less than a femtosecond. The present results challenge the theoretical understanding of the interaction mechanisms. An electron spectrometer was used to selectively field-ionize the Rydberg states, 9 < n < 17, at beam energies of 581 MeV and 800 MeV. The yield of low-lying states were measured by Doppler tuning a Nd:YAG laser to excite transitions to a Rydberg state which was then field-ionized and detected. A simple model is developed to fit the yield of each state as a function of foil thickness. The simple model is successful in predicting the general features of the yield data. However, the data are suggestive of a more complex structure in the yield curves. The yield of a given state depends strongly on the foil thickness, demonstrating that the excited states are formed during the passage of the ions through a foil. The optimum thickness to produce a given state increases with the principal quantum number of the state suggesting an excitation process which is at least pratially stepwise. The results of a Monte Carlo simulation are compared with the experimental data to estimate the distribution of the excited states coming out of a foil. The distributions of the excited states and their dependence on foil thickness are discussed