Measurement of electron-impact excitation cross sections out of the neon 3P2 metastable level -: art. no. 032708

We have measured cross sections for the electron-impact excitation out of the metastable levels of neon into the ten levels of the 2p(5)3p configuration, Two sources of metastable neon atoms were used, a hollow-cathode discharge and a fast beam formed via near-resonant charge exchange. Both sources produce a mixed target of Ne in both (P-3(0) and P-3(2)) metastable levels. For the 2p(5)3p excited levels with J = 2 or J = 3, the excitation is dominated by excitation from the P-3(2) level, and we present cross sections over the energy range of 0 to 450 eV. The results are compared with the cross sections for excitation out of the metastable levels of argon and the applications to diagnostics of ionized gas systems are discussed.