Wannier threshold law for two electron escape in the presence of an external electric field

Abstract

We consider double ionization of atoms or ions by electron impact in the presence of a static electric field. As in Wanniers analysis of the analogous situation without external field the dynamics near threshold is dominated by a saddle. With a field the saddle lies in a subspace of symmetrically escaping electrons. Near threshold the classical cross section scales with excess energy E like sigma=E^alpha, where the exponent alpha can be determined from the stability of the saddle and does not depend on the field strength. For example, if the remaining ion has charge Z=2, the exponent is 1.292, significantly different from the 1.056 without the field.