Dynamic two-center resonant photoionization in slow atomic collisions

Abstract

Abstract An additional channel for photoionization of an atom A by an electromagnetic field opens if it interacts with an atom B resonantly coupled to this field. In this channel, which is known to be very efficient when A and B constitute a bound system, A is ionized via resonant photoexcitation of B with subsequent energy transfer to A through two-center electron correlations. We show that it can strongly dominate the ionization of A also in collisions with B, even though the average distance between A and B exceeds the typical size of a bound system by orders of magnitude.