Depopulation of Excited Mercury Atoms by Collisions with Hydrogen Molecules in the Flowing Mercury Afterglow

TLDR: In this article, the steady state flowing afterglow method was used to investigate the depopulation of the excited mercury states by collisions with hydrogen molecules, and the quenching cross sections were estimated to be q1=6.6 A2 and q0=0.25 A2, respectively.

Abstract: Using the steady state flowing afterglow method, hydrogen molecules in their ground states are introduced into the mercury afterglow plasma in which the dissociative recombination process is predominant, and the depopulation of the excited mercury states by collisions with hydrogen molecules are investigated. The quenching of the radiation emitted from 73S1 or 63D state is explained by assuming that, after the dissociative recombination, the dissociated atom produced in the excited state of which transition probability is smaller than those of 73S1 and 63D states is depopulated by collisions with hydrogen molecules. The resonance state 63P1 and the metastable state 63P0 are also quenched and these quenching cross sections are estimated to be q1=6.6 A2 and q0=0.25 A2, respectively.