Atomic collision processes relevant for heavy ion beam probes

Atomic collision processes of fast Tl and Cs ions with particles in a high temperature fusion plasma are investigated. At low beam energies (<5 MeV), ion impact collisions and charge exchange processes can be neglected compared to electron ionization processes. At beam energies above 5 MeV and high plasma ion temperatures, collisions with ions start to contribute significantly to signal generation and attenuation. Also, collisions with the neutral background gas in the beamlines can attenuate the ion beam significantly and lower the signal level, if the vacuum pressure is above 10^-4 Torr. For the heavy ion beam probes operating today, only electron impact ionization processes are important and accurate predictions of the secondary signal level and electron density profile measurements are possible because of the good knowledge of electron impact ionization cross sections for Cs ⁺ and Tl⁺ ions