Measurement of electron-impact excitation cross sections out of the neon3P2metastable level

Abstract

We have measured cross sections for the electron-impact excitation out of the metastable levels of neon into the ten levels of the ${2p}^{5}3p$ configuration. Two sources of metastable neon atoms were used, a hollow-cathode discharge and a fast beam formed via near-resonant charge exchange. Both sources produce a mixed target of Ne in both ${(}^{3}{P}_{0}$ and ${}^{3}{P}_{2})$ metastable levels. For the ${2p}^{5}3p$ excited levels with $J=2$ or $J=3,$ the excitation is dominated by excitation from the ${}^{3}{P}_{2}$ level, and we present cross sections over the energy range of 0 to 450 eV. The results are compared with the cross sections for excitation out of the metastable levels of argon and the applications to diagnostics of ionized gas systems are discussed.