COINCIDENCES BETWEEN ELECTRONS AND TARGET IONS TO IDENTIFY CAPTURE CHANNELS IN COLLISIONS OF MULTIPLY CHARGED IONS ON GAS TARGETS

We have investigated multielectron capture processes in collisions of Ar9+ on Ar by measuring the resulting Auger electrons in coincidence with charge-state-analyzed target ions. In this way it was possible to reconstruct partial electron energy spectra, each corresponding to a particular number of initially captured electrons. The spectra are compared with predictions of the extended classical over-barrier model. Strong evidence is found that Auger cascades play an important role for the deexcitation of the highly excited ions, formed by multielectron capture.