Observation of reactive and unreactive scattering of Ar+(2P3/2) and Ar+(2P1/2) by at low energies

Abstract

The crossed-beam method was used to investigate the charge-transfer reaction of Ar+(2P3/2, 1/2) with [Formula: see text]. The percentage of Ar+(2P1/2) in the ion beam could be varied between about 1 and 33% by varying the operating conditions of the high-pressure ion source. Reactive scattering of Ar+(2P3/2) demonstrates that several different electronic states of the [Formula: see text] product are populated. Evidence that the ground-state ion appears to be highly vibrationally excited (ν = 0–12) is shown. Unreactive scattering of a mixture of Ar+(2P3/2) and Ar+(2P1/2) at 0.85 eV shows that all accessable vibrational states of ground-state O2 are populated as well as the fine-structure transition of Ar+(2P3/2) to Ar+(2P1/2).