Characteristics of the resonant charge transfer in strongly coupled plasmas including quantum and shielding effects

Abstract

The influence of quantum tunnelling and shielding on the resonant electron transfer process in strongly coupled plasmas is investigated. The screened atomic states and energy eigenvalues are employed to obtain the resonant electron transfer cross-section in strongly coupled plasmas. It is found that the classical resonant electron transfer cross-section increases with an increase of the ion-sphere radius. However, the energy-dependent quantum tunnelling resonant electron transfer cross-section is shown to decrease with increasing ion-sphere radius. It is demonstrated that an increase of the nuclear charge decreases the screening effect on the electron transfer cross-section while the quantum tunnelling effect enhances the resonant electron transfer cross-section in strongly coupled plasmas. In addition, it is shown that the effect of quantum tunnelling on the resonant electron transfer process decreases when both the collision energy and ion-sphere radius increase. The variation of shielding effect on the resonant electron transfer process in strongly coupled plasmas is also discussed.