Crossed-beam studies of associative ionisation in heteronuclear systems: NaLi+production from Li*+Na and Na*+Li collisions

Abstract
The authors report direct measurements of crossed-beam reaction rate coefficients for the production of NaLi+ from associative ionisation collisions between Na and Li atoms. Separate excitation of the np levels in each atomic species permits two series of experiments: Li*(np)+Na to NaLi++e for 4++e for 8+ arising from interbeam collision were normalised to Na2+ and Li2+ production rates arising from intrabeam associative ionisation. Comparison of these results with both quantitative and qualitative theoretical prediction reveals significant disagreement.