L-shell Coulomb ionization by heavy charged particles

The theory of Coulomb ionization of L shells by low-velocity heavy charged particles whose atomic number is small compared to the atomic number of the target atom is extended to projectiles with velocities comparable to or larger than the L-shell orbital velocities. At large impact parameters projectiles polarize the shell, and at small impact parameters they increase the binding energies of the electrons to be excited. The polarization effect is incorporated in accordance with the perturbed stationary-state (PSS) approximation. The effect of the repulsion between the projectile and the target nucleus is accounted for by a Coulomb-deflection factor (C). This CPSS theory is developed further to include relativistic effects (R) of the target wave function through a procedure that reproduces the results of numerical calculations for heavy target atoms. With electron capture by the projectiles as an additional channel of ionization, the CPSSR theory is compared with experiment.