This award will enable a group of physicists under the direction of Professor Rufus H. Ritchie of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to collaborate with Professor Fuminori Fujimoto of the University of Tokyo, Japan in a study of the dynamic interactions of electrons and ions with condensed matter. The study will be carried out at both theoretical and experimental levels in complementary programs in the U.S. and in Japan. In the U.S., the theoretical work will be based on a quantum mechanical, many-particle, self-energy analysis of the interactions of electrons and swift ions with matter. The experimental effort will focus on the study of dynamic processes by the new technique of scanning tunneling microscopy. The Japanese theoretical study will focus on quantum many-particle properties of charged particles in collision with electrons and ion cores in passing through condensed matter. The concurrent experimental program will consist of studies of particulate channeling and ion interactions with solids, with emphasis on electronic transitions in the solids and on the projectile. An understanding of the interactions between energetic particles and condensed matter is of significant practical importance in many areas of modern physics, including for example, surface diagnostic physics, radiation physics, molecular ion structure determinations, and accelerator-based atomic physics. Dr. Ritchie's group at the University of Tennessee and Dr. Fujimoto's group at the University of Tokyo bring extensive and complementary expertise and equipment to bear on this research project.
