Transfer ionization in H++H

An ion-atom merged beams setup at the Cryogenic Storage Ring

We describe a merged beams experiment to study ion-neutral collisions at the Cryogenic Storage Ring of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. We produce fast beams of neutral atoms in their ground term at kinetic energies between 10 and 300 keV by laser photodetachment of negative ions. The neutral atoms are injected along one of the straight sections of the storage ring, where they can react with stored molecular ions. Several dedicated detectors have been installed to detect charged reaction products of various product-to-reactant mass ranges. The relative collision energy can be tuned by changing the kinetic energy of the neutral beam in an independent drift tube. We give a detailed description of the setup and its capabilities, and present proof-of-principle measurements on the reaction of neutral C atoms with D₂ ⁺ ions.

Mutual neutralization of atomic rare-gas cations (Ne(+), Ar(+), Kr(+), Xe(+)) with atomic halide anions (Cl(-), Br(-), I(-))

We report thermal rate coefficients for 12 reactions of rare gas cations (Ne(+), Ar(+), Kr(+), Xe(+)) with halide anions (Cl(-), Br(-), I(-)), comprising both mutual neutralization (MN) and transfer ionization. No rate coefficients have been previously reported for these reactions; however, the development of the Variable Electron and Neutral Density Attachment Mass Spectrometry technique makes it possible to measure the difference of the rate coefficients for pairs of parallel reactions in a Flowing Afterglow-Langmuir Probe apparatus. Measurements of 18 such combinations of competing reaction pairs yield an over-determined data set from which a consistent set of rate coefficients of the 12 MN reactions can be deduced. Unlike rate coefficients of MN reactions involving at least one polyatomic ion, which vary by at most a factor of ∼3, those of the atom-atom reactions vary by at least a factor 60 depending on the species. It is found that the rate coefficients involving light rare-gas ions are larger than those for the heavier rare-gas ions, but the opposite trend is observed in the progression from Cl(-) to I(-). The largest rate coefficient is 6.5 × 10(-8) cm(3) s(-1) for Ne(+) with I(-). Rate coefficients for Ar(+), Kr(+), and Xe(+) reacting with Br2 (-) are also reported.

Communication: Transfer ionization in a thermal reaction of a cation and anion: Ar+ with Br- and I-

We present experimental evidence that reactions of argon cations Ar(+) with the halogen anions Br(-) and I(-) do not occur exclusively by mutual neutralization, but also produce the cations Br(+) or I(+) ions by transfer ionization (TI). The experiments were carried out in flowing-afterglow plasmas at gas temperatures between and 300 and 500 K, and employed a variant of the Variable Electron and Neutral Density Attachment Mass Spectrometry method. The measured TI rate coefficients are 1.9 ± 0.6 × 10(-9) cm(3) s(-1) and 1.1 ± (0.3)(0.8) × 10(-9) cm(3) s(-1) for the Br(-) and I(-) reactions, respectively. We find that the TI rate coefficients decline with temperature as T(-0.5) to T(-1). No indication of TI was found in the reaction with Cl(-), where it is endoergic.