Study of two-body and three-body channels for the reaction of metastable helium atoms with selected atomic and molecular species

Abstract

This work reports the measurements of rate coefficients for excitation transfer reactions of metastable He(2 3S) atoms, produced in 0.3–4 atm of helium, with various reactants presenting a wide range of characteristics. In all cases studied, three-body reaction channels were identified with most probable values of rate coefficients lying in the range from 0.2 to 6.7×10−31 cm6 s−1, for Ne and N2O, respectively. These are generally more than one order of magnitude smaller than previously reported. The interpretation of this discrepancy in terms of a more reactive intermediate He2(Σ*) complex in dynamic equilibrium with the He(2 3S) population seems to be confirmed, and is analyzed in some detail.