Excitation of Cu II and Ag II in electron — atom collisions

An experimental study was made of the inelastic collisions of copper and silver atoms with slow electrons, which populate the Cu II and Ag II energy levels. The excitation cross sections of the levels of the nd⁸(n + 1)s², nd⁹(n + 1)l, and nd⁹(n + 2)l configurations (l = s, p, d, and f) were determined for an electron energy of 50 eV. On average, the excitation cross sections of the Ag II levels are several times larger than those of the similar Cu II levels.