Dissociative excitation of the rubidium atom and the single-charged ru
bidium ion during collisions of slow electrons with RbF molecules was
studied. It was found that dissociative excitation cross sections in t
he spectral series of the rubidium atom obey the power law with the la
rgest and smallest power index observed in the P-series and D-series,
respectively. The contribution of the cascade population of the 5p lev
els to the excitation cross sections of the single-charged rubidium io
n was determined, and the cross sections for direct excitation of thes
e energy levels were calculated.