Model potential calculations for the excited states of Ne*-He and Ne*-Ne. Application to the interpretation of collision experiments

A method is developed for the calculation, at internuclear distances R>5 au, of the potential curves of the NeHe* and NeNe* systems correlated to the levels of the 2p 5 3s and 2p 5 3p configurations of the neon atom. It is a generalisation to open shell cores of the model potential method of Valiron et al. (1979) for alkali-rare-gas systems. The neon atom is treated using the model of Feneuille et al. (1970). For the NeHe* system, radial coupling calculations are performed, and a two-state quantal calculation provides a temperature variation of the 2p 3 to 2p 4 and 2p 4 to 2p 5 population transfer cross sections in good agreement with experiment. The inclusion of u-g symmetry effects for the NeNe* system is discussed. The humps in the 1s 5 0 u - and 1 u states of Ne 2 are found to be close to the experimental determination of Colomb de Daunant et al. (1981) when the estimation of Cohen and Schneider (1974) for the Ne 2 + potentials is used. Such humps are sensitive to the estimation of the core-core interaction.