(under the class definition) Processes or composition where an unknown specie is determined by contacting the specie with a material that has been activated or excited to a metastable state and analyzing the resulting products or reaction of activated species.
(1) Note. This subclass takes processes in which materials such as nitrogen, mercury argon, etc., are excited to a metastable state by exposing the material to high frequency discharge, microwave excitation, x-radiation, cold cathode discharges, U.V. lasers, etc., and contacting the excited material with the unknown(s) being monitored or detected.
(2) Note. This subclass does not include a chemiluminescent species as an activated species.
