A guided-ion beam study of the collisions and reactions of I+ and I2+ with I2

Abstract

Growing interest in developing and testing iodine Hall effect thrusters requires measurements of the cross sections of reactions that generate low energy plasma following discharge. Limited experimental and theoretical work necessitates a decisive experiment to elucidate the charge exchange and collision-induced dissociation channels. To this end, we have used guided-ion beam techniques to measure cross sections for both I+ + I2 and I2++I2 collisions. We present total collision cross sections as well as collision-induced dissociation cross sections for center-of-mass collision energies ranging from 0.5 to 200 eV for molecular iodine cations. Similarly, we present total collision cross section and charge-exchange cross sections for atomic iodine cations for center-of-mass collision energies ranging from 0.67 to 167 eV. Time-of-flight measurements of the collision products allow determination of velocity distributions, which show evidence of complex formation of I3+ from the I+ + I2 reaction at collision energies below 6 eV.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 17, 2015
Source ID
10.1063/1.4907602

Entities

People

  • Benjamin Prince
  • Michael L. Hause
  • Raymond J Bemish

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • Boston College

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster