Low-energy dissociative recombination in small polyatomic molecules

Abstract

Indirect dissociative recombination of low-energy electrons and molecular ions often occurs through capture into vibrationally excited Rydberg states. Properties of vibrational autoionization, the inverse of this capture mechanism, are used to develop some general ideas about the indirect recombination process, and these ideas are illustrated by examples from the literature. In particular, the Δv = -1 propensity rule for vibrational autoionization, i.e., that vibrational autoionization occurs by the minimum energetically allowed change in vibrational quantum numbers, leads to the prediction of thresholds in the dissociative recombination cross sections and rates at the corresponding vibrational thresholds. Capture into rotationally excited Rydberg states is also discussed in terms of recent low-temperature studies of the dissociative recombination of H(3)(+).