Ion Implantation and Synthesis of Materials - Studium

12 2 Particle InteractionsThe restriction to r-dependence is usually a good approximation. Throughoutthis text, the variable r will define the separation distance between two interactingparticles. The pairs might be atom–atom, electron–atom, electron–electron, ion–atom, etc.The potential energy, or binding energy, of a single atom is the work done inbringing all components of the atom from infinity to their equilibrium positions inthe atom. The simplest example is the semiclassical picture of the hydrogen atom.Thus, if an electron or charge, e, is brought from infinity to a distance r from thecenter of a proton under the attractive Coulomb field, the (negative) potentialenergy would ber ⎛∫ ∞ ⎜⎝⎞⎟⎠2e2a( ) = d = −( / ).2V r r e rr(2.3)2.3 Short- and Long-Range Interatomic ForcesThere are different types of forces that make up the interaction between two atomsover a large range of separation. Both experimental phenomena and theoreticalconsiderations suggest that the forces can be categorized as short- and long-rangeforces.The nature of the long-range force depends on whether the system consists ofneutral atoms, charged ions, or a combination of the two. The force of greatestmagnitude at large separations is the Coulomb electrostatic interaction betweentwo charged ions, assumed to be point charges. The Coulomb potential is obtainedby applying (2.2) to (2.1) to give21 2c ( ) =−⎛ ZZeV r ⎜⎞⎟⎝ r ⎠.(2.4)where Z 1 e and Z 2 e are the charges of the ions. From (2.2) we see that the forceF(r) for a given central force field is expressed in terms of the interaction potentialbyc ( )∞V r = ∫rF ( r )d. r(2.5)If one or both of the particles are neutral, this Coulomb force is zero in the twobodyapproximation, and the long-range interaction is greatly reduced.As two atoms approach each other, some degree of merging of the particlesoccurs. As the particles merge, the electron orbits from the electrons of eachatom begin to overlap, and a limitation in the occupation of available electronstates arises due to the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Under such circumstances, the