ON THE FORMATION OF H(N=3)DIPOLE MOMENTS IN COLLISIONS OF PROTONS ON RARE-GAS ATOMS

We have investigated proton-rare gas atom charge transfer collisions i n the energy range from 20 to 100 keV and have extracted the electrost atic dipole moments (EDMs) of the collisionally produced H(n = 3) atom s from the optical data. The results show that the EDM decreases with increasing atomic number of the rare gas atoms. Our data provide exper imental evidence that post-collisional electrostatic forces do not inf luence the formation of the EDMs.