Electron-impact ionization for the levels of Fe3＋

Abstract

Electron-impact single ionization is investigated for the levels of the ground 3d5 and long-lived 3d44s configurations of the Fe3＋ ion. In addition, the Maxwellian rate coefficients are tabulated in the study. The difference among the cross sections reaches ∼11% and ∼17% for the levels of the ground and long-lived configurations, respectively. The excitation autoionization (EA) provides the larger variation of the cross sections compared to the direct ionization (DI). It is demonstrated that the EA cross sections for the levels of the ground configuration vary more strongly compared to the values calculated for the excited configuration. On the other hand, the DI cross sections evaluated for the levels of the ground configuration agree within ∼4% while the difference of ∼9% is obtained for the levels of the long-lived configuration.