Vacuum-Ultraviolet Photon Production in Low-Energy Collisions Between Two Neutral Argon Atoms

Abstract

We describe the first observation of extreme-ultraviolet photons produced during collisions between two ground-state neutral argon atoms. The energy dependence of the relative cross section for photon production is found to exhibit structure at about 70 eV c.m. energy, similar to that observed in the cross section for ionization in argon collisions.