Absolute cross sections for D2 Lyman and Werner band excitation by controlled electron impact

Abstract

We have studied the Lyman [Formula: see text] and Werner [Formula: see text] band emissions produced by 20–500-eV electrons incident on molecular deuterium, D2. Emission cross sections of (3.7 ± 0.9) × 10−17 cm2 for the B → X and (3.54 ± 0.74) × 10−17 cm2 for the C → X system have been determined at 100-eV impact energy. Cascading did not play an important role in the [Formula: see text] emission, but it was shown to affect the [Formula: see text] emission seriously, particularly for impact energies below 50 eV. We estimate the cross section for direct excitation of the [Formula: see text] state and the cascade cross section to be 2.95 × 10−17 and 0.75 × 10−17 cm2, at 100 eV respectively. The cascade cross section is 20 ± 10% of the total B → X emission cross section, and is essentially constant in the energy range 300–50 eV, but increases significantly for lower impact energies, e.g., to 40 ± 15% at 27.5 eV. The cross section for the atomic 2p → 1s Lyman α emission from D2 has also been measured and the value of 1.00 × 10−17 cm2 at 100 eV is 20% smaller than the cross section for Lyman α emission from H2.