A New Approach to Determining Rainbow Scattering Cross Sections for Atoms and Ions

Abstract

we calculated the differential cross section for rainbow scattering of atoms and ions using first-order perturbation theory and accounting for the collective oscillations of atomic electrons and nuclei. We found that the differential cross section for atom–atom rainbow scattering is zero at zero scattering angle, whereas it remains nonzero for ion–atom scattering. We also found that, at zero scattering angle, the rainbow-scattering cross section exhibits a discrete set of values proportional to the square of the ion’s charge state.