Wechselwirkung niederenergetischer hochgeladener Ionen mit Materie

The thesis presented herein deals with experimental studies of the interaction between highly charged ions and neutral matter at low collision energies. The energy range investigated is of great interest for the understanding of both charge exchange reactions between ions comprising the solar wind and various astrophysical gases, as well as the creation of near-surface nanostructures. Over the course of this thesis an experimental setup was constructed, capable of reducing the kinetic energy of incoming ions by two orders of magnitude and finally focussing the decelerated ion beam onto a solid or gaseous target. A coincidence method was employed for the simultaneous detection of photons emitted during the charge exchange process together with the corresponding projectile ions. In this manner, it was possible to separate reaction channels, whose superposition presumably propagated large uncertainties and systematic errors in previous measurements. This work has unveiled unexpectedly strong contributions of slow radiative decay channels and clear evidence of previously only postulated decay processes in charge exchange-induced x-ray spectra