Effect of the Mo/ller interaction on electron-impact ionization of high-Z hydrogenlike ions

We have investigated the effects of the Mo/ller interaction in relativistic distorted-wave calculations of cross sections for electron-impact ionization of high-Z hydrogenlike ions. We found that the Mo/ller interaction significantly increases the cross section for hydrogenlike uranium, and brings our calculated results into very good agreement with experimental results reported by Marrs, Elliott, and Knapp [Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 4082 (1994)]. We found similar increases in the cross sections for other hydrogenlike ions. Our results also show that these effects become important at much lower collision energy than previously reported [D. L. Moores and M. S. Pindzola, Phys. Rev. A 41, 3603 (1990)]. With the Mo/ller interaction included, our cross sections for these ions are in good agreement with preliminary results obtained in recent experiments on the electron-beam ion trap (EBIT).