ETACHA : GUI charge state evolution code  (Win, macOS, Linux)
  

	Introduction
	2016: Creation of a GUI application, and it's implementation to the LISE++ package
	2021: Porting to Qt-framework. Cross platform operation. Graphs
	Next development steps

 

Introduction

Simulating the evolution of the charge-state of fast projectile ions in dense targets is a quite complex problem. The ion suffers successive collisions with the atoms of the bulk, which are responsible of its slowing down. They disturb its electronic cloud through elementary processes such as electron capture, ionization and excitation. At high velocity, ionization and excitation dominate while capture becomes negligible and a perturbative treatment is then applicable. By decreasing the ion velocity, all the processes end up playing an equivalent role that make the modeling much more complicated. The team "Clusters and Surfaces under Intense Excitation" of INSP, in collaboration with Argentinean theorists, develop the only code [1,2] that can predict the evolution of ion charge-state distributions as a function of the solid target thickness for a wide range of collision velocities and by taking into account ions with up to 60 orbital states of electrons.

A ETACHA4 Graphical User Interface (GUI) utility was created in 2016 to complement with the other utilities in the LISE⁺⁺ Utilities Package, which are either used in the LISE⁺⁺ reaction mechanism and transmission calculation software. The ETACHA libraries will provide useful calculations for LISE⁺⁺ users in future. Specifically, users can quickly compare yields and other interesting results with other codes provided in the Utilities, such as GLOBAL or CHARGE. This is great for those users who are not familiar with command-line programs, using libraries or just want to quickly check calculations.
The new GUI utility has been created with Builder 6.0 and operates only on MS Windows.

The ETACHA4-GUI(2016) code was implemented in the Qt graphics framework in 2021. Qt is a C++ graphics framework for cross-platform development. This can be compiled into Windows, Mac, and Linux GUI executables. The executables is distributed in installation with our LISE⁺⁺ Utilities Package.

Two serious bugs have been fixed. We are very grateful to Dr. Toshiyuki Sumikama (RIKEN) for a fast and high-quality analysis.

The new ETACHA4-GUI(2021) code (v.4.4.3) created in Qt-framework operates in MS Windows, macOS, and Linux, has obtained the charge state evolution plot capabilities.