Measurements of differential cross sections for electron-impact excitation to long-lived excited states of He, Ar, H 2, and N 2 by a molecular-beam recoil method

Abstract

The velocity and angular distributions of the metastable species of He, Ar, H 2, and N 2, produced by electron impact on their supersonic molecular beams, were measured at several impact energies. The differential cross sections of the inelastic electron scattering due to formation of the metastable species were determined from the velocity and angular distributions by analysis of the beam recoil. The results agree well with those obtained by electron energy-loss spectroscopy. This method was also adopted to determine the differential cross sections for production of the high-Rydberg states of He and Ar atoms by electron impact.