Breakdown of spin conservation for collisions of chlorine ions with atomic and molecular gases

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

High resolution translational energy spectroscopy has been performed on 3 keV Cl + ions in collisions with Ar, He, N 2, O 2 and CO. The target species included atoms and molecules in singlet and triplet ground states. Spectroscopically, N + and Cl + ions are very similar, both have 3P ground states and have similar low-lying metastable states 1S and 1D. Correspondingly, their energy loss spectra are very similar. In collisions of Cl + with N 2, CO and Ar a weak structure is observed which is identified as the spin non-conserved transition 3P → 1D in the Cl + ion.