Electron-impact excitation of xenon

Summary form only given. We present theoretical results from multi-state R-matrix (close-coupling) and two different distorted-wave calculations for electron-impact excitation from the ground and excited states to the fine-structure levels of the 5p/sup 5/6s, 5p/sup 5/6p, and 5p/sup 5/5d configurations in Xe I. The results obtained for similar calculations in Ar I and Kr I for some transitions were found to be extremely sensitive to the theoretical model for both the collision process and the target structure. An analysis of the dependence of the results on the details of the theoretical model, particularly on the structure description and the number of coupled states is presented and the results obtained are compared with available predictions as well as experimental data. This investigation not only reveals many interesting aspects of basic physics of atomic collisions, but it is extremely important for many gaseous electronics applications such as lighting and plasma technologies. In particular, results from this study are used to model an electron beam pumped Ar-Xe laser at NRL.