Ionisation by highly excited argon states in mixtures of argon with krypton

The ionisation coefficient in mixtures of argon and krypton has been measured. From the results it is learned that for pressures above 2 kPa, ionisation processes occur through the interaction of highly excited argon states with ground state krypton atoms. Values are obtained for the rate coefficient for excitation of the highly excited argon states for E/n>100*10 -21 V m 2 .