Dissociative electron attachment to cyanogen bromide in the reaction with autoionizing high-Rydberg rare gas atoms

Abstract

The ratio of the dissociation products, [Br − ]/[CN − ], in electron attachment to BrCN from high-Rydberg atoms, Rg**, in autoionizing states was found to be 0.19 for Kr** and 1.5 for Xe**. The difference in the branching ratio is explained by the Coulomb interaction between the positive rare gas ion and the negative ion produced in the electron-transfer process. This provides evidence that the ion core of a high-Rydberg atom plays a significant role in dissociative electron attachment, which is disregarded in the «free»-electron model applied to reactions of high-Rydberg atoms