Excitation of fast metastable hydrogen atoms to the n=3 state in passage through gases
- 14 March 1980
- journal article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Journal of Physics B: Atomic and Molecular Physics
- Vol. 13 (5) , 951-958
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3700/13/5/020
Abstract
A technique, previously used in the authors' laboratory, in which the H(2s) metastable population of a 5-26 keV beam of hydrogen atoms is modulated by a periodic electric quench field, has been adapted to study Balmer alpha emission in the passage of such beams through thin targets of He, Ne, Ar, Kr, H2, and N2. Cross section-data for excitation of H(2S) to the n=3 state have been obtained for the first time. When considered in relation to the authors' previous studies of collisional destruction of H(2S) atoms, the present data indicate that a 2s-nl-1s de-excitation mode via intermediate states n>2 only accounts for part of the observed total cross sections for de-excitation. Capture into unstable states of H- which subsequently decay by autoionisation is therefore believed to be an important collisional destruction process in the present energy range.Keywords
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