Vibrational excitation of HCl by electron impact

Measurements have been made of the vibrational excitation rate constant of HCl excited by electron impact. The experiments were performed in a uniform electron beam sustained discharge over the range of average electron energies from 0.8 to 1.7 eV. A mean value of (1.2±0.4)×10−8 cm3/sec was obtained corresponding to a cross section of several Å2. It was also determined that the vibrational excitation by electron impact was predominantly to the first vibrational level with only 20% probability of exciting the second or higher levels.