Dissociative Excitation of Odd Triplet Levels of a Nickel Atom by Collisions of Electrons with Nickel Dibromide Molecules

The dissociative excitation of the odd triplet levels of a nickel atom by the collisions of electrons with nickel dibromide molecules is investigated using extended crossing beams and recording the optical signal of the excited atoms. In all, 50 excitation cross-sections of Ni I spectral lines are measured at an electron energy of 100 eV. Nine optical excitation functions (OEFs) are recorded in a range of electron energies of 0-100 eV. The obtained data on the dissociative excitation cross-sections of the spectral lines are used for the calculation of the excitation cross-sections of the energy levels as well as the contribution from the cascade transitions. The possible channels of dissociative excitation which manifest themselves in the region of low electron energies (E < 22 eV) are discussed.