Reactive scattering and electron detachment in O− collisions with H2. Nascent product energy distributions

Abstract

Results of the measurements of the energy distributions of secondary electrons and H− ions produced in low relative energy (1 to 10 eV) collisions of O− with H2 are presented. The electron distribution for the associative detachment reaction is found to be narrow and peaks at almost zero energies, indicating the formation of a highly vibrorotationally excited molecule. The H− energy distributions are structured and indicate the formation of vibrationally excited OH. For low collision energies this excitation is small. The H− energy distributions are found to resemble closely the ones obtained in dissociative attachment in electron–H2O scattering.