Multichannel treatment of penning ionization in He* (1s2s, 3S) + ar with discretization of the electronic continuum

Abstract

Within the context of a discretization of the electronic continuum, multichannel calculations of Penning ionization of Ar by He* (1s2s, 3S) are presented for several partial waves and collision energies. They verify the validity of approximating the full matrix scattering equation by a set of two-state equations. In this decoupling approximation, theoretical Penning electron energy distributions and integral cross sections are obtained and found to compare favorably with experiments at thermal energies.