Eur. Phys. J. D 63, 103-109 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2011-10560-3

Regular Article

Electron impact excitation into the 3p⁵4p levels from the 3p⁵4s metastable levels of argon

Key Laboratory of Atomic and Molecular Physics & Functional Materials of Gansu Province, College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, P.R. China

^a e-mail: dongcz@nwnu.edu.cn

Received: 4 October 2010
Received in final form: 5 January 2011
Published online: 9 June 2011

Abstract

Electron impact excitation cross sections of argon from the 3p⁵4s matastable states to the excited states of 3p⁵4p configuration were calculated by using the fully relativistic distorted wave method, based on the multi-configuration Dirac-Fock (MCDF) theory. The influence of electron correlation effects on cross sections were discussed in detail. For low energy impact, it is found that the electron correlation effects have a large influence on the cross sections and make the cross sections smaller. However, this influence become smaller with the increasing of incident electron energy. The present results are in good agreement with the experiments of Boffard et al. [Phys. Rev. A 59, 2749 (1999)] in most cases.