Single-photon emission associated with double electron capture in F9++ C collisions

Radiative double electron capture (RDEC), the one-step process occurring in ion-atom collisions, has been investigated for bare fluorine ions colliding with carbon. RDEC is completed when two target electrons are captured to a bound state of a projectile simultaneously with the emission of a single photon. This work is a follow-up to our earlier measurement of RDEC for bare oxygen projectiles, thus providing a recipient system free of electron-related Coulomb fields in both cases and allowing for the comparison between the two collision systems as well as with available theoretical studies. The most significant mechanisms of x-ray emission that may contribute to the RDEC energy region as background processes are also addressed.