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Kinetic-energy release in CO dissociation caused by fast F[sup 4+] impact

Journal Article · · Physical Review A; (United States)
; ; ;  [1]
  1. James R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506 (United States)

The dissociation of CO caused by 1-MeV/amu F[sup 4+] impact has been studied using the coincidence time-of-flight technique. The kinetic energy released during the dissociation of CO[sup [ital Q]+] into ion pairs C[sup [ital q]][sub 1]+ and [ital O][sup [ital q]][sub 2][sup +] was determined from the measured difference in the times of flight of the two charged fragments. The kinetic-energy distributions of CO[sup 2+] dissociating into C[sup +] and O[sup +] as a result of different impinging projectiles have been compared. These distributions shift towards higher kinetic-energy release values with increasing strength of interaction. A single Gaussian kinetic-energy distribution is in good agreement with the highly charged CO dissociation, while for doubly and triply charged CO, additional Gaussians are needed. While the Coulomb-explosion model approximately predicts the most likely value of a measured distribution, the widths of all distributions are grossly underestimated by the model. The measured widths of the distributions can be explained only by invoking the existence of potential-energy curves of the multiply charged ions that have steeper and shallower slopes as compared to the Coulombic curve. The reflection method was used to calculate the kinetic-energy release for F[sup 4+]+CO[r arrow]CO[sup 2+*] transitions to all known CO[sup 2+] states. The final kinetic-energy distribution was then fitted to the data in order to evaluate the weights of the different transitions. The calculated fit is in fair agreement with the measured one, although the high-energy tail of the measured distribution could not be accounted for, indicating that contributions from highly excited dissociating states or from curve crossings need to be included.

OSTI ID:
6702584
Journal Information:
Physical Review A; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review A; (United States) Vol. 51:1; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English