Dissociative Ionization of CO by Ion Impact

Abstract

Cross sections for the reactions He++CO→C++O+He, Ne++CO→C++O+Ne, and Ar++CO→C++O+Ar are studied as functions of ion kinetic energy. The first reaction exhibits the behavior expected for an exothermic reaction. The latter two prove to be endothermic and to have onsets which are surprisingly sharp. The experimental thresholds are in good agreement with values calculated from the well-accepted D(CO) = 11.11 eV. It appears that the technique used may prove to be useful for determining unknown bond-dissociation energies.