Studies of the Shapes of Ionization-Efficiency Curves of Multiply Charged Monatomic Ions. I. Instrumentation and Relative Electronic-Transition Probabilities for Krypton and Xenon Ions

Abstract

The determination of threshold ionization potentials for multiple ionization processes in krypton and xenon is shown to depend upon the threshold law assumed for these processes. Support has been obtained for the kth power rule for k-fold ionization by electron impact. Ionization potentials have been obtained for multiple ionization in these gases. It was found that the output electron current of the magnetic electron multiplier, obtained for the multiply charged positive ions, depends strongly upon the charge of the ion impinging upon the ion cathode of the multiplier.