Suppressed electron capture in slowO+(4S°,2D°,2P°)-He collisions

Abstract
Total cross sections for single-electron capture from He by keV O+ 2D° and 2P° metastable ions turned out to be much smaller than for O+ 4S° ground state ions, despite a larger energy defect for the latter reaction. We suggest that this unexpected behavior is caused by efficient suppression of electron capture into either metastable ion due to a competing, collisionally induced inelastic transition into the companion metastable state.

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