Collision induced Lyman-alpha emission from metastable hydrogen

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Abstract
Deactivation of the metastable 2s state of hydrogen in collisions with the noble gases Ne and Ar and with the molecules N2 and CO2 has been studied in the velocity range between 3*105 cm s-1 and 4*106 cm s-1. At these velocities the dominant process should be mixing of the 2s state with the adjacent 2p state, followed by radiative decay to the ground state. Appropriate construction of the target cell allows absolute total destruction cross sections and absolute radiative destruction cross sections to be measured simultaneously. In all cases the two cross sections turn out to be equal in velocity dependence and absolute value within experimental accuracy. This equality suggests that contributions of radiationless processes to the total destruction cross section are relatively unimportant.

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