The role of excited-state ionization on the effective ionization of neutral neon using non-perturbative atomic data

With the aim of providing accurate atomic data for plasma edge temperature and density modeling with neutral neon, new non-perturbative R-Matrix with Pseudostates (RMPS) calculations are performed for both the electron-impact excitation and ionization of neutral neon. The new calculations agree well with past measurements and calculations for both electron-impact excitation and ionization. For ionization, the addition of pseudostates from to allows us to extract new cross sections and rate coefficients for all of the excited states through 2p ⁵ 5p. The new RMPS ionization calculation gives a 20% increase in the cross section for the ionization compared with previous non-perturbative calculations and shows classically-expected n ⁴-scaled convergence for the np and nd valence shells. Ionization from these excited states contributes significantly to the effective ionization rate coefficient: a factor of three more than the ground-state ionization rate coefficient at an electron temperature of 25 eV and density of 10¹⁴ cm^-3. An accurate, non-perturbative set of atomic rates, both LS- and LSJ-resolved, for neutral neon across a wide range of temperatures and densities is compiled.