Collisions of laser excited xenon Rydberg atoms with ammonia

Thesis/Dissertation · Mon Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:5280604

Kellert, F G

In thermal collisions between Xe(nf) Rydberg atoms and NH/sub 3/ collisional depopulation of the nf state occurs through at least three distinct mechanisms: n-changing collisions, 1-changing collisions, and ionizing collisions. Using selective field ionization, the total collisional depopulation rate constants k/sub d/ are measured for laser-excited Xe(nf) atoms in the n range of 22 to 39. The magnitudes of k/sub d/ are large, corresponding to reaction cross section comparable to the geometric size of the Xe(nf) atom at n = 22. In the n range of 25 to 40, Xe/sup +/ ion production provides an absolute measure of the rate constants for collisional ionization. Approximate rate constants for n- and 1-changing collisions are also presented for the 31f state. In these experiments, one finds that the state-changing collision rate constants are fairly independent of n and are determined largely by the 1-changing collisions. The collisional ionization rate constants measured are smaller than the state-changing rate constants and increase with increasing n, ranging between 0.2 and 4.6 x 10/sup -7/ cm/sup 3//sec for n between 25 and 40. The presented results are compared to those of recent theoretical calculations.

• Research Organization: Rice Univ., Houston, TX (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5280604
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640304* -- Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics-- Collision Phenomena
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
AMMONIA
ATOM COLLISIONS
ATOM-MOLECULE COLLISIONS
CHARGED PARTICLES
COLLISIONS
CORRECTIONS
DATA
ELEMENTS
ENERGY LEVELS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EXCITATION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUIDS
GASES
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
IONIZATION
IONS
LASERS
MOLECULE COLLISIONS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN HYDRIDES
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
RARE GASES
RYDBERG CORRECTION
XENON
XENON IONS