Electron-impact excitation cross sections into Ne(2p53p) levels for plasma applications

One requirement for plasma spectroscopy analysis and modeling of neon discharges is a set of electron-impact excitation cross sections covering excitation from both the 2p(6) ground state and from the four 2p(5)3s levels. We present experimental measurements for excitation cross sections into four J = 1 levels of the 2p(5)3p configuration from the J = 0 and J = 2 2p(5)3s metastable levels. A complete set of cross sections into all ten levels of the 2p(5)3p configuration (2p(x) in Paschen's notation) from the ground state, the two metastable levels and the two resonance levels of the 2p(5)3s configuration (1s(y) in Paschen's notation) are compiled in convenient form. The resonance cross sections are obtained from an empirical scaling relationship between the measured metastable excitation cross sections and the corresponding optical oscillator strengths. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3597826]