Measurements of the dissociative recombination coefficients of O₂⁺, NO⁺and NH₄⁺in the temperature range 200-600K

Abstract

Measurements are presented for alpha t , the dissociative recombination coefficients with electrons of O 2 + , NH 4 + and NO + under truly thermalised conditions within the temperature range 200-600K using a flowing afterglow/Langmuir probe apparatus, alpha t (O 2 + ) is found to vary as approximately T -0.7 in close accord with previous pulsed afterglow data for alpha t (O 2 + ) and alpha e (O 2 + ) and with values for alpha e (O 2 + ) inferred from ion trap data. alpha t (NH 4 + ) is found to vary as approximately T -.06 . alpha t (NO + ) is found to vary as approximately T -0.9 which is reasonably consistent with previous pulsed afterglow data for alpha t (NO + ). These data are also compared with values of alpha 3 (NO + ) measured in a pulsed afterglow experiment and those derived from ion trap and merged beam cross section data and from atmospheric observations.