Polarization and orientation in electron impact excitation to Ne*(2p53p) states

Abstract

The electron impact excitation of ground-state neon atoms to several, generally not LS-coupled, Ne*(2p53p) states is studied by electron-polarized photon coincidence experiments on the Ne*(2p53p) → Ne*(2p53s) decay radiation. For four transitions the Stokes' parameters P1 to P4 are published at fixed incident electron energies of 50 and 80 eV and in the electron scattering range of 22°–70°. A theoretical discussion is presented to show how information about the collision process can be extracted from the experimental results. For excitation to the three excited states with total angular momentum J = 2 the behaviour of the total angular momentum transfer [Formula: see text] as a function of the electron-scattering angle at 50 eV strongly suggests a common excitation mechanism.