He⁰+N₂ collisions at 1.0 keV

He⁰+N₂ collisions are studied at an energy of 1.0 keV and in an angular range from 0.2° to 2°. Time-of-flight techniques are used to identify the dominant collision processes. Electronically elastic collisions are found to dominate the scattering for angles out to 1.3°. In He⁰+N₂, H₂, and O₂ collisions the electronically elastic processes were found to be weak beyond the smallest angles, in sharp contrast to the present results. Excitation of N₂ (a ¹Π_g) is found to be the dominant small-angle inelastic process. Our results also show excitation of N₂⁺ (A ²Π_u and B ²Σ_u⁺) but at most very weak excitation of the N₂⁺ (X ²Σ_g⁺) ground state. The excitation of an electron from the 3σ_g molecular orbital of N₂ is found to be generally quite specific and takes place primarily through a transition to a 1π_g orbital.