The charge-transfer reaction of helium ions with xenon was investigated with a crossed-beam apparatus at collision energies of 5.1, 29, and 97 eV. In agreement with luminescence studies of the same reaction, the dominant product observed is the 6s ${}_{}{}^4{}_{}{}^{}P_{1/2}^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ state of ${\mathrm{Xe}}^{+}$. A deconvolution technique which removes the contribution of this near-resonant state was used to investigate the contribution of other excited states and the ground state to the observed scattering diagram. A highly structured scattering-contour diagram was revealed which allowed positive identification of several excited-state products. These states are formed directly by charge transfer rather than by cascading from higher states; they also exhibit angular-specific and quantum-state-specific scattering. A propensity rule to conserve electronic angular momentum (ΔJ=0) is also inferred.

• Received 31 July 1987

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.37.3211