Charge Transfer Excitation of NeAr+ Ions in Collisions with Electrons

We study the resonant processes of the excitation of weakly bound NeAr+ ions in collisions with the free electrons of Ne/Ar mixture plasma under conditions typical of the active media of gas lasers and plasma-based UV radiation sources. The transitions leading to the population of charge transfer electronic terms are considered. Using an original theoretical approach developed recently, we study the dependences of the cross-sections of several competing resonant processes on the incident electron energy and the gas temperature of the plasma. The role of the continuous states of internuclear motion is discussed. We highlight the specific features of the processes considered that stem from the low binding energy of NeAr+ ions and demonstrate that, in the weakly bound systems, the efficiencies of different charge transfer excitation channels differ greatly from those obtained for ions with moderate dissociation energies.