Two-center double-capture interference in fast He2+ + H2 collisions

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Apr 17;102(15):153201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.153201. Epub 2009 Apr 15.

Abstract

We report the first observation of Young-type interference effects in a two-electron transfer process. These effects change strongly as the projectile velocity changes in fast (1.2 and 2.0 MeV) He(2+) + H(2) collisions as manifested in strong variations of the double-electron capture rates with the H(2) orientation. This is consistent with fully quantum mechanical calculations, which ignore sequential electron transfer, and a simple projectile de Broglie wave picture assuming that two-electron transfer probabilities are higher in collisions where the projectile passes close to either one of the H(2) nuclei.