Ionization cross sections for electron scattering from metastable rare-gas atoms (Ne^* and Ar^*)

The optical-model approach has been used to investigate the electron-impact ionization of metastable rare-gas atoms. A complex equivalent-local polarization potential is obtained to describe the ionization continuum channels. We have calculated the cross sections for collisional ionization of the metastable atoms Ne^* and Ar^* by electrons in the energy range from threshold to 200 eV. The present results are in agreement with the available experimental measurements and other theoretical calculations.