X-ray spectroscopy of electronic quasimolecules. I. Isolation and study of particular K molecular-orbital transitions

Selected K molecular-orbital (MO) transitions in collisions of 100-, 160-, and 200-MeV /sup 93/Nb on /sup 93/Nb and 200-MeV /sup 93/Nb on /sup 120/Sn have been isolated in a MO x-ray--K x-ray coincidence measurement. This experiment exploits the cascade relationship between the MO x rays emitted in transitions from the (2pπ/sub x/, 2pσ) MO's into the 1sσ MO and the characteristic K x ray which follows from the filling of the ensuing vacancy in the projectile or target atoms after their separation. In both symmetric and asymmetric systems, most of the high-energy MO x rays (C2 radiation) were found to be in coincidence with characteristic K x rays while the low-energy MO x rays (C1 radiation) were not correlated to the K x rays. Noncascade processes due to multiple vacancies in the 1sσ and 2pσ MO's were also found to contribute a small amount to the true MO x-ray--K x-ray coincidences. Theoretical estimates of the relative contributions of the isolated transitions as well as contributions from multiple vacancies are discussed