Interaction potentials for the alkali ion—rare-gas systems

The alkali ion—rare-gas interaction potentials are determined directly from gaseous ion transport data. The potentials are tested by calculating the transport coefficients from them and then comparing the calculated values with the many sets of measured values. Similar tests are made of other potentials that have been proposed, especially those inferred from alkali ion—beam-scattering measurements in the rare gases. These tests indicate that the present potentials are generally accurate within 10% over wide ranges of ion—rare-gas separation.