Page 4: Research news on Atomic & molecular collisions

Atomic and molecular collisions is a research area focused on the dynamics of interactions between atoms, molecules, ions, and electrons over a wide range of energies, from ultracold to relativistic regimes. It investigates elastic, inelastic, and reactive scattering processes, including energy transfer, excitation, ionization, charge transfer, and chemical reaction pathways. The field combines quantum scattering theory, potential energy surface calculations, and semiclassical or fully quantum dynamical methods with beam, trap, and plasma experiments. Applications span astrophysics, atmospheric and plasma physics, fusion research, radiation damage, and controlled chemistry, providing benchmark data for cross sections, rate coefficients, and collisional models used in simulations of complex many-body systems.

Researchers develop new model to predict surface atom scattering

A group of Cornell-led researchers in the Center for Bright Beams has developed a new theoretical approach to calculate how atoms scatter from surfaces. The method, developed by recently conferred Cornell physics Ph.D. Michelle ...

Electron slow motion: Ion physics on the femtosecond scale

How do different materials react to the impact of ions? This is a question that plays an important role in many areas of research—for example, in nuclear fusion research, when the walls of the fusion reactor are bombarded ...

Novel method examines the gas-liquid interface in new detail

The interface between gases and liquids is found throughout nature. It is also important to many industrial processes. To improve understanding of the gas-liquid interface, researchers have developed an apparatus to study ...

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