EXCITATION OF AR-I 3P54P, 3P53D AND 3P55S CONFIGURATIONS BY ELECTRONS IN THE DISTORTED-WAVE APPROXIMATION

Excitation cross sections for all fine-structure levels of Ar I 3p(5)4p, 3d and 5s configurations are calculated for the range of electron energies 16-100 eV in the distorted-wave Born approximation with exchange. Non-empirical intermediate-coupling wavefunctions are used and their quality is checked by calculating the dipole transition probabilities. The results are compared with the experimental data obtained by electrical and optical methods.