Superelastic collisions between slow electrons and excited Hg atoms

The rate coefficient of the superelastic electron-excited Hg 3 P 2 atom collision has been determined by plasma electron spectroscopy. At 0.2 eV electron temperature the rate value is beta e2 =(2.9+or-1.2)10 -8 cm 3 s -1 . Using this value the excitation cross section of Newman et al. (1985) is calibrated.