Quantum Phenomena and the Mobility of Potassium Ions in Argon

Abstract

Recent work on the mobilities of alkali metal ions in the noble gases has indicated that there is a pressure dependence of the zero-field reduced mobility. The possibility of temporarily bound dimmers being responsible for this pressure dependence is examined here by quantum mechanical methods for the case of potassium ions in argon and it is shown that the conditions needed for a small pressure dependence do exist at room temperature.