https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2009-00965-0
Polarization and angular correlation studies of X-rays emitted in relativistic ion-atom collisions
1
Atomic Physics Group, GSI, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
2
Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
3
Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland
4
FIAS, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
5
IKF, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
6
Centre for Plasma Physics, ICREP, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, Ireland
Corresponding author: t.stoehlker@gsi.de
Particle and photon polarization phenomena occurring in collisions of relativistic ions with matter have recently attracted particular interest. Investigations of the emitted characteristic x-ray and radiative electron capture radiation has been found to be a versatile tool for probing our present understanding of the dynamics of particles in extreme electromagnetic fields. Owing to the progress in x-ray detector technology, in addition, accurate measurements of the linear polarization for hard x-ray photons as well as the determination of the polarization plane became possible. This new diagnostic tool enables one today to derive information about the polarization of the ion beams from the photon polarization features of the radiative electron capture process.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2009
