Swift Highly Charged Ion Channelling Denis Dauvergne IPNL, Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69003, France; Université Lyon 1 and IN2P3/CNRS, UMR 5822, 4 rue E. Fermi, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
[email protected] Abstract . We review recent experimental and theoretical progress made in the scope of swift highly charged ion channelling in crystals. The usefulness of such studies is their ability to yield impact parameter information on charge transfer processes, and also on some time related problems. We discuss the cooling and heating phenomena at MeV/u energies, results obtained with decelerated H-like ion beams at GSI and with ions having an excess of electrons at GANIL, the superdensity effect along atomic strings and Resonant Coherent Excitation . 1. Ion Channelling – Interaction with a dense electron gas If an incident parallel ion beam has an orientation close to a major crystallographic direction of a crystal, then the ion flux is redistributed inside the target, below the surface: channelled ions undergo a series of correlated collisions at small angle along atomic strings or planes that repel them at large distances from the target atoms. The flux distribution of channelled positive particles is then characterized by a depletion of small impact parameters, and by a flux peaking near the centre of the axial or planar channels. This property has been widely used over the last 40 years to probe the structure of ordered matter, allowing lattice location of impurities, evidencing the nature of defects, providing information on surfaces and on strained epitaxial layers. It has also provided information on basic particle-matter interactions [1,2].