Dissociative recombination of the weakly bound NO-dimer cation: Cross sections and three-body dynamics

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Journal of Chemical Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2116927· OSTI ID:20723228

Petrignani, Annemieke; Andersson, Patrik U; Pettersson, Jan B. C.; Thomas, Richard D; Hellberg, Fredrik; Ehlerding, Anneli; Larsson, Mats; Zande, Wim J. van der ^[1]

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1. FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Dissociative recombination (DR) of the dimer ion (NO){sub 2}{sup +} has been studied at the heavy-ion storage ring CRYRING at the Manne Siegbahn Laboratory, Stockholm. The experiments were aimed at determining details on the strongly enhanced thermal rate coefficient for the dimer, interpreting the dissociation dynamics of the dimer ion, and studying the degree of similarity to the behavior in the monomer. The DR rate reveals that the very large efficiency of the dimer rate with respect to the monomer is limited to electron energies below 0.2 eV. The fragmentation products reveal that the breakup into the three-body channel NO+O+N dominates with a probability of 0.69{+-}0.02. The second most important channel yields NO+NO fragments with a probability of 0.23{+-}0.03. Furthermore, the dominant three-body breakup yields electronic and vibrational ground-state products, NO({upsilon}=0)+N({sup 4}S)+O({sup 3}P), in about 45% of the cases. The internal product-state distribution of the NO fragment shows a similarity with the product-state distribution as predicted by the Franck-Condon overlap between a NO moiety of the dimer ion and a free NO. The dissociation dynamics seem to be independent of the NO internal energy. Finally, the dissociation dynamics reveal a correlation between the kinetic energy of the NO fragment and the degree of conservation of linear momentum between the O and N product atoms. The observations support a mechanism in which the recoil takes place along one of the NO bonds in the dimer.

• OSTI ID: 20723228
• Journal Information: Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Physics Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 123; ISSN JCPSA6; ISSN 0021-9606
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
CATIONS
DIMERS
DISSOCIATION
FRAGMENTATION
GROUND STATES
KINETIC ENERGY
LINEAR MOMENTUM
MILLI EV RANGE
NITRIC OXIDE
REACTION KINETICS
RECOMBINATION
STORAGE RINGS
THREE-BODY PROBLEM
VIBRATIONAL STATES