LASER-PROBED ROVIBRATIONALLY SPECIFIC ELECTRON-IMPACT EXCITATION OF H$_2$ James R Harries, A.J.Murray, and Peter Hammond Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK A new apparatus exploiting the flexibility of electron-impact excitation and the resolution of laser photo-excitation has been developed. A stepwise excitation scheme is used to investigate ro-vibrationally specific excitation cross-sections to the $c^3\Pi_u$ metastable states by detecting decay products of the $^3nd$ Rydberg series in H2. More details can be found here..