A study of l changing in Xe (n f)–neutral collisions at thermal energies

Abstract
In this paper we report a study of thermal collisions between Xe (nf) Rydberg atoms and Xe, Kr, Ar, CO2, CO, and N2. The dominant collision mechanism is, in all cases, observed to be l changing: no evidence of n changing or ionization is apparent. Comparison of the experimentally derived cross sections with those obtained using a theoretical model in which effects due to the Rydberg core are ignored appears to lead to satisfactory results only for Xe, Kr, and CO2, whereas when core effects are included satisfactory agreement between experiment and theory is found in all cases.