Ion-atom-atom three-body recombination: From the cold to the thermal regime

Abstract

We present a study on ion–atom–atom reaction A + A + B+ in a wide range of systems and collision energies ranging from 100 μK to 105 K, analyzing two possible products: molecules and molecular ions. The dynamics is performed via a direct three-body formalism based on a classical trajectory method in hyperspherical coordinates developed in Pérez-Ríos et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 140, 044307 (2014)]. Our chief finding is that the dissociation energy of the molecular ion product acts as a threshold energy, separating the low- and high-energy regimes. In the low-energy regime, the long-range tail of the three-body potential dictates the fate of the reaction and the main reaction product. On the contrary, in the high-energy regime, the short-range of atom–atom and atom–ion interaction potential dominate the dynamics, enhancing molecular formation.