Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 202
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2012-30049-9

Regular Article

Modeling praseodymium K X-ray lines in an electron beam ion trap

¹ Centro de Física Atómica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Monte de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
² Centro de Física Atómica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências, FCUL, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, Ed. C8, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
³ Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, Case 74; 4, place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France

^a e-mail: jps@fct.unl.pt

Received: 20 January 2012
Received in final form: 16 April 2012
Published online: 16 August 2012

Abstract

We study the most important processes for the creation of excited states in He-like through C-like praseodymium ions from the ions ground configurations, leading to the emission of K X-ray lines. Theoretical values for inner-shell excitation and ionization cross sections, transition probabilities and energies for the deexcitation processes, are calculated in the framework of the multi-configuration Dirac-Fock method, including QED corrections. Using these calculated values, a theoretical Kα X-ray spectrum is obtained, which is compared to recent experimental data obtained in the Livermore Super-EBIT electron beam ion trap facility.