Fine-Structure Transition in Ne(P03) on Ne(S01) Collisions at Thermal Energies

Abstract
The collision-induced exothermic fine-structure transition Ne(P03)Ne(P23) has been observed in a crossed-effusive-beam experiment, by measuring the time of flight of metastable atoms scattered perpendicularly to the incident-beam plane. In this direction, the elastic scattering is kinematically discriminated. The identification of the transition is achieved by pumping P03 or P23 levels with a cw dye laser.