The formation of mercury molecules. II

Abstract
In the first paper on this subject Arnot and Milligan (1936), using a mass spectrograph, showed that diatomic mercury molecules were formed by attachment of excited atoms to normal atoms, the products of the collision being an ionized molecule and a free electron. It was shown that for this process to occur the excited atom must be in an energy state about 9⋅5 V above the normal. The primary object of the work described in this paper was to determine this appearance potential more precisely by using the balanced space charge method. The lowest excited state of an atom which, on collision with a normal atom, leads to the formation of a molecular ion is shown to be the 6 s 8 p 4 1 P 1 state of 9⋅722 V energy. In addition we have detected molecular ions formed by the attachment of two excited atoms, and evidence is put forward to show that only atoms in P states form attachments with normal atoms which lead to the formation of molecular ions.

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