Absence of reionization in low-energy Na+ scattering from Al surfaces

Inner-shell excitation during low-energy atomic collisions in the gas phase is driven by the formation of transient molecules, in which some electronic levels are promoted to higher energies. For collisions occurring in solids, it is commonly believed that electrons are promoted into the empty conduction states of the embedding system. To verify this assumption, we scattered slow, singly charged neon and sodium ions from polycrystalline aluminum surfaces, focusing on the Auger decay of projectiles excited in the 2 p level, during a binary collision with a target atom. We observed double promotion of 2 p electrons in collisions involving neon projectiles and neonlike sodium ions. Double 2 p excitation is anticipated also for neutralized sodium projectiles, but only single excitation is observed. This implies that the collision-induced excitation is governed by the occupancy of the 3 s level of the sodium projectile, with the electrons being excited into the Rydberg states of the collision system, rather than being transferred to the solid.