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Coherent Ionization of Atoms by Dense Beams of Extreme Relativistic Electrons
S Kim1, C Müller1, A B Voitkiv1
1Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Institute for Theoretical Physics I, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
Abstract:
Ionization is one of the basic physical processes, occurring when charged particles penetrate atomic matter. Here, we predict a novel ionization mechanism, arising in collisions with very dense and compact beams of extreme relativistic electrons, in which a significant fraction of the beam electrons acts coherently as a single "superprojectile." We compare this mechanism with the tunnel and overbarrier ionization and ionization by individual electrons, demonstrating that it can strongly dominate the ionization process. We also show that this mechanism and the tunnel ionization are very sensitive to the spatiotemporal structure of the beam that can be used for analyzing the beam properties.
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