On the collisional excitation of N 2 by slow molecular ions

Abstract

High resolution translation energy spectrometry has been applied to study excitation of N 2 molecules in 1.8 keV collisions with H + 2, N + 2, CO +, CO + 2, O + 2 and CS + 2 projectiles. Excitation to optically-forbidden N 2 electronic states A 3∑ + u, B 3Π g, B′ 3∑ − u and a′ 1∑ − u is observed and compared with computed transition probabilities. The cross section for excitation to these states is found to be sensitively dependent on whether the projectile ion is in a 2∑ + state or a 2Π state.