Excitation Transfer and Penning Ionization Reactions between Helium Metastables and Carbon Monoxide

Abstract

Absolute intensity measurements have been made of the radiating states of the carbon atom and carbon monoxide ion produced in a flowing afterglow by the reaction, He(2 3S)+CO. These measurements coupled with absorption measurements of the He(2 3S) and CO densities are sufficient for calculating the rate constants for the production of the excited products mentioned above. It is found that of the total reaction rate between He(2 3S) and CO, 4% of this rate corresponds to the production of a dissociated CO molecule with the carbon atom in an excited state and, the remaining percentage of the total rate corresponds to Penning reactions into the three energetically available electronic levels of CO+ with about equal probabilities.