Questioning the observation of laser-assisted ionization in fast collisions of He(2 (1),3S) with He.

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In four recent papers Pradel et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 2600 (1985); Phys. Rev. A 35, 1062 (1987)) and Monchicourt et al. (Phys. Rev. A 33, 3515 (1986); Chem. Phys. Lett. 152, 336 (1988)) give arguments claiming the observation of laser-assisted ionization of the short-lived collision complex formed during collisions of He/sup */(2 /sup 1,3/S) with He. However, estimates of the relative sizes of the assisted and unassisted ion signals observed make it very unlikely that laser-assisted ionization has been observed in those experiments. Collisional excitation to higher He/sup */ states, followed by (single-photon) ionization of the excited states, seems a more likely explanation at all energies considered.