Depopulation of low-Rydberg Na atom in collisions with rare gases: A molecular-state treatment

✍ Scribed by Anil Kumar; Bidhan C. Saha; Ali A. Khan; Vijay Kumar; Sunil K. Verma; Krishna K. Prasad

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 234 KB
• Volume: 73
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7608
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-461x(1999)73:3<307::aid-qua5>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

Total quenching of the low-Rydberg state of Na in collision with thermal Ne and Ar was investigated, for the first time, employing a molecular approach in the impact parameter formalism. A large basis set of Slater-type orbitals was used to calculate the molecular structure of the transient quasimolecule formed during the collision; pseudopotentials were used to incorporate the effective binding of the distant electron. A 14-channel calculation was carried out to evaluate the total depopulation Ž . cross sections for Na 9 s colliding with the ground-state Ne and Ar atoms in the thermal-energy region. The two colliding pairs not only differ from each other, but also show wide variations from the previously studied Na-He pair, in terms of details of the collision dynamics. In the case of the Na-Ar system, a unique feature that leads to appreciably larger quenching cross sections shows qualitative agreement with the