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Ion Impact Ionization
Ion Impact Ionization
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Ion impact ionization
Figure: Archetypal potential energy curves of a diatomic molecule
(XY) along with the schematic description of the kinetic energy release
between the fragments X and Y.
Ion impact is another efficient way to produce molecular ions in different excited states [20,21,22,23]. In
collision of highly charged ions (HCI) with neutral molecules several electrons may be stripped of and multiply
charged transient molecular ions may be formed in the excited states of the molecule at the equilibrium inter
nuclear distance (R ). Charge transfer processes between projectile ions (I ) and neutral molecules (AB)
may take place in multiple ways:
(4.1)
(4.2)
(4.3)
(4.4)
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(4.5)
The transfer ionization process is defined as a process where one electron is transferred from the target to the
projectile and at the same time another electron is removed from the target molecule. Ionization weakens the
bond within the ion as compared to the precursor neutral and results in longer bond lengths [15]. The nuclear
repulsion energy dominating over binding electronic energy makes the multiply charged molecular ions unstable
and compels them to dissociate instantly into copious quantities of energetic charged atomic fragments. In
dissociation of molecular ion, most of the excess energy is converted into the kinetic energy of the fragments.
This situation can be best viewed by looking at the potential energy curve of a diatomic molecule (which will be
replaced by potential energy surfaces in case of polyatomic molecules) where energy is plotted as a function of
internuclear separation. The stable, ground state potential energy curve of a neutral diatomic molecule (curve A
in Figure [*] ) and excitation of it to different dissociative states (curves B and C in Figure [*] ) of multiply
ionized precursor have been shown in Figure [*] . In principle, many repulsive states are possible in a single
precursor but which state will be accessed depends on the strength of the perturbation. The further fate of the
excited ion depends on the shape of its potential energy curve. The molecular ions excited to curve B in Figure
[*] possess no minimum on their potential energy curve, therefore dissociate spontaneously as soon as they
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20140822
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