A TRANSLATIONAL ENERGY SPECTROMETER TO PROBE INTERATOMIC POTENTIALS -DISSOCIATION DYNAMICS OF CO2+ IONS

A new ion translational energy spectrometer has been developed to carr y out low-energy, gas-phase ion-molecule collision experiments which a im to probe molecular potential energy surfaces. The collisional techn ique employed relates small changes in the kinetic energy of a project ile ion after it has undergone collision with a static neutral atom/mo lecule to changes in the overall potential energy of the collision sys tem; information can be furnished about the interaction potential betw een the projectile and the target. First measurements are reported of a high resolution target excitation spectrum obtained in 1.8 keV colli sions of H-2+ ions with N2. New results pertaining to collision-induce d dissociation of CO2+ ions are presented and discussed in terms of po tential functions of low-lying electronic states of the molecular ion.