Ionization of Gases by Collisions of Their Own Accelerated Atoms

Neutral atom beans of noble gases of energies between 20 and 400 volts were produced by accelerating ionized atoms and then neutralizing the charges. The minimum energies which these neutral atom beams needed in order to ionize gas atoms by collision were determined. Neon, argon, krypton and xenon were found to ionize their own gases at energies about three times the actual ionization potentials. Attempts to observe ionization of one gas by neutrals of another have as yet given no results.