The mobilities of xenon ions in xenon and the derived charge transfer cross section for Xe+(2P3/2) ions in xenon

A drift tube of the four-gauze Tyndall-Powell type has been used to obtain accurate mobility data for ground-state Xe + ( 2 P 3/2 ) ions, metastable Xe + ( 2 P 1/2 ) ions and molecular Xe 2 + /Xe 3 + ions in xenon at room temperature (294.1+or-0.2K) over a wide E/N range (E is the electric field strength and N is the gas number density). The measurements were made at E/N values from 50 to 10000 Td in the case of the Xe + ( 2 P 3/2 ) ions, and from 50 to 250 Td in the case of the Xe 2 + /Xe 3 + ions. The mobility data for the Xe + ( 2 P 1/2 ) ions were derived by a manual deconvolution of the Xe + ( 2 P 3/2 )+Xe + ( 2 P 1/2 ) peak into two Gaussian curves. Owing to low resolution, the data for the Xe + ( 2 P 1/2 ) ions could only be derived for E/N values less than 900 Td. The mobility of the Xe + ( 2 P 3/2 ) ions was found, over the common E/N range, to be systematically 6% lower than that of the Xe + ( 2 P 1/2 ) ions. The charge transfer cross section sigma c , calculated for Xe + ( 2 P 3 2/) ions in xenon over the energy range 0.38 to 4.46 eV (lab) using the theory of Skullerud (1969), is estimated to be in error by less than +or-5%.