Excitation of low-energy H atoms in H+Ne collisions

Abstract

Excitation of 0.05--2.5-keV H atoms in H+Ne collisions has been examined by measuring the absolute emission cross sections for Balmer-\ensuremath{\alpha}, Balmer-\ensuremath{\beta}, and Lyman-\ensuremath{\alpha} radiations resulting from the collisions. Lyman-\ensuremath{\alpha} emission was also observed when an electric field was applied in the interaction region to investigate excitation of H atoms to the (metastable) 2s state. The radiation polarization for each of the above emissions was measured. A new method for absolute calibration of the Lyman-\ensuremath{\alpha} detector is described, and Lyman-\ensuremath{\alpha} emission cross sections for ${\mathrm{H}}^{+}$+Ar and ${e}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$+${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ collisions are compared with previous results, the latter reaction giving a significantly smaller cross section than generally accepted. The peculiar behavior of the H+Ne interaction indicated by the measurements is discussed.