corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 92 » Issue 22
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 223202 (2004) [4 pages]

Practical Means for the Study of Electron Correlation in Atoms

Download: PDF (224 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

R. W. van Boeyen1, N. Watanabe2, J. P. Doering1, J. H. Moore3, and M. A. Coplan4
1Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
2Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan
3Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
4Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

Received 12 August 2003; revised 16 January 2004; published 4 June 2004

Electron correlation is basic to the understanding of a diverse range of physical and chemical phenomena, yet, there have been no direct measurements of the correlated motion of electrons. Measurement of the correlated momenta of atomic electrons is possible via electron-impact double ionization provided that the ionizing collisions are both impulsive and binary, and the three-body scattering mechanism is known. The results reported here satisfy these conditions, and a practical means for the study of atomic electron correlation through measurement of two-electron momentum densities is presented.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.223202
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.223202
PACS:
34.80.Dp
 
< Previous Article | Next Article >