Eur. Phys. J. D 54, 51-64 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2009-00167-8

Quantum Stark broadening of 3s–3p spectral lines in Li-like ions; Z-scaling and comparison with semi-classical perturbation theory

¹ Groupe de Recherche en Physique Atomique et Astrophysique, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Zarzouna, 7021, Tunisia
² LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France
³ Groupe de Recherche en Physique Atomique et Astrophysique, INSAT, Centre Urbain Nord B.P. 676, 1080 Tunis, Tunisia

Corresponding author: ^a haykel.elabidi@fsb.rnu.tn

Received: 13 December 2008
Revised: 11 April 2009
Published online: 6 June 2009

Abstract

Quantum mechanical results for the electron impact Stark widths of the 3s–3p transitions in ten Li-like ions from C IV to P XIII are carried out. The atomic structure is obtained through a scaled Thomas-Fermi-Dirac-Amaldi potential (SST numerical code) with relativistic corrections. The distorted wave method is used for the calculation of the S-Matrix, and Feshbach resonances are included by means of the Gailitis method. A comparison with other theoretical and available experimental results is done. Except for Ne VIII, we find that the agreement between our quantum results and the experiments gets better when Z increases, which is not the case for the available close-coupling quantum ones. The behavior of the Stark width with the charge Z and the electron temperature T_e is also studied and in contrast to previous studies, an improved agreement with experimental Z-scaling is obtained. We show that the relative difference between widths of the two fine structure lines of the same multiplet increases with Z from 0.5% for C IV to about 12% for P XIII, proving the increasing importance of fine structure effects. The importance of the Feshbach resonances is discussed and a comparison with available semi-classical perturbation results is given.