The mobilities of atomic krypton and xenon ions in the2P1/2and2P3/2state in their parent gas

Abstract

The mobilities of atomic ions of krypton and xenon in their parent gas are shown to depend on the spin state of the ion. In both gases the mobility of the ground-state ion (²P_3/2) was found to be lower than that of the metastable ion (²P_1/2). This difference originates in the different interatomic potentials which arise from the interactions of (²P_3/2)+(¹S₀) and (²P_1/2)+(¹S₀) states respectively. The results may be related to a recent theoretical investigation of a difference in the charge-exchange cross section of both spin states at low ion energies (Sinha and Bardsley 1976). The zero-field mobilities were obtained by extrapolation at 294K in krypton and at 273, 293 and 345K in xenon.