One and two electron transfer at low collision energy: Spectroscopic case studies

A comparative study of single and double electron transfer is made considering ions with an initial charge of 8 + (O8+, Ne+, Ar8+) colliding with He at energies of a few keV/amu. It is shown that even though single capture populates n = 4, the dynamics of the process is different. Furthermore double capture being possible, mostly via a two step process in one collision, it appears that stabilization changes significantly in these three cases from mostly autoionizing to mostly radiative. (orig.)