H(2s) excitation in 10-100 keV H+ - H collisions

The authors have used a crossed beam technique to determine cross sections for 2s excitation of H atoms in 10-100 keV collisions. The results extend their previous 4-26 keV measurements to intermediate energies where theoretical predictions based on close coupling methods are known to be strongly dependent on the choice of the expansion basis. The 4-100 keV cross sections exhibit an undulatory structure similar to that predicted by some of the many close coupling calculations but good quantitative agreement is shown to be very limited. Close coupling calculations which employ large basis sets at the expense of target states are shown to agree less satisfactorily with experiment than those which include only the dominant 1s capture channel