Strongly enhanced recombination via two-center electronic correlations

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Jun 11;104(23):233202. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.233202. Epub 2010 Jun 9.

Abstract

In the presence of a neighboring atom, electron-ion recombination can proceed resonantly via excitation of an electron in the atom, with subsequent relaxation through radiative decay. It is shown that this two-center dielectronic process can largely dominate over single-center radiative recombination at internuclear distances as large as several nanometers. The relevance of the predicted process is demonstrated by using examples of water-dissolved alkali cations and warm dense matter.