Electron-impact dissociation and ionization of NO+ ions

Abstract

Absolute cross sections for electron-impact ionization and dissociation of NO+ ions are reported. Simple ionization to NO2+ ion and production of singly charged N+ and O+ and doubly charged N2+ and O2+ fragments have been investigated. The animated electron-ion crossed-beam method is applied in the energy range from the respective thresholds up to 2.5 keV. The maximum of the simple ionization cross section is found to be (3.49 ± 0.07) × 10−17 cm2 at 135 eV. The total cross sections for N+ and O+ fragments at the maximum are found to be (13.9 ± 1.0) × 10−17 cm2 and (14.0 ± 1.4) × 10−17 cm2, respectively, both at an energy of 85 eV. By performing careful magnetic field scans of the detected signal, contributions of dissociative excitation and dissociative ionization to N+ and O+ production are determined separately. The cross sections for asymmetric dissociative ionization to N2+ and O2+ are found to be over one order of magnitude smaller. Distributions of the kinetic energy release to the fragments are determined for all dissociation processes.