Regular Article

Influence of electron correlation on the cross section and linear polarization of radiation emitted by electron-impact excitation of Ca⁺ and Ba⁺ ions

¹ School of Science, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou 412007, P.R. China
² College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, P.R. China

^a e-mail: chenzhanbin008@qq.com

Received: 20 October 2017
Received in final form: 20 January 2018
Published online: 17 April 2018

Abstract

Calculations of the electron-impact excitation (EIE) of singly charged Ca⁺ and Ba⁺ ions and subsequent de-excitation process are performed using a fully relativistic distorted wave (RDW) method. To resolve the discrepancy between previous theory and experiment, careful consideration is given to the generation of the target state wave-functions through the systematic inclusion of electron correlations. It is found that the electron correlation effects play a significant role on the cross section, while the effects on the linear polarization of the emitted radiation are relatively small. Good agreement between our result and experiment is obtained.