Interaction of fast particles with condensed matter

   We are working about the interaction of fast particles with condensed matter, which has received a renewed interest in the last years with recent experiments and theoretical studies. The wide area of interest includes basic studies on the interaction of molecular and atomic beams with solids and surfaces, as well as possible applications to inertial confinement and ion-beam fusion.

   One of the questions in which we are interested, from the theoretical point of view, is the electronic stopping power for heavy ions in a solid medium, which depend on the electronic capture and loss cross sections, the electronic excitation of the stopping medium, the projectile electronic density, etc. We are also interested in the differences on the energy loss that appear when an atomic ion or a molecular ion with a well defined geometrical structure interact with matter. The origin of these differences is due to the so-called vicinage effects in the electronic excitations produced by neighboring projectiles, leading to interferences in the excitations of individual and collective modes induced in the target by the atomic ions. The vicinage effects depend on the molecular geometry and velocity, as well as on the properties of the stopping medium.

   The members of the group that are interested on this research topic are:
 

	Rafael Garcia-Molina, Lecturer
	Santiago Heredia-Avalos, Postdoctoral researcher

    We are actually collaborating with two research groups:
 

	Centro Atómico Bariloche
	Departamento de Física Aplicada Universidad de Alicante