Tentative explanation of selective population of the 2p1 level of neon atoms in the case of M-effect in neon plus hydrogen and neon plus oxygen gas mixtures

In electropozitive-electronegative gas mixtures discharges, the selective population of a certain level has been previously observed, this process being called the M-effect. This behaviour was explained by ion-ion recombination. However, the selective population of a certain level was not explained before. In this paper, we report on a tentative explanation of the selectivity as being due to energy resonant recombination process of a three body collision between negative and positive ions and a metastable electronegative atom. Comparisons of the spectra of Ne+H-2 and Ne+O-2 with the spectrum of pure neon are presented as an example. A single strongly enhanced line was observed in the spectra of the two gas mixtures. The energy defect of the reaction was calculated to be less than +/- 0.2 eV. Various other gas mixtures containing electronegative and electropositive atoms are expected to give rise to the M-effect.