A further study of HCO+ dissociative recombination

Yield of excited CO molecules from dissociative recombination of HCO+ and HOC+ ions with electrons

The authors have investigated CO band emissions arising from the dissociative recombination of HCO(+) and HOC(+) ions with thermal electrons in a flowing afterglow plasma. The quantitative analysis of the band intensities showed that HCO(+) recombination forms the long-lived CO(a (3)Pi) state with a yield of 0.23+/-0.12, while HOC(+) recombination favors formation of CO(a' (3)Sigma(+)) and CO(d (3)Delta) with a combined yield of greater than 0.4. The observed vibrational distribution for the CO(a) state reproduces theoretical predictions quite well. The vibrational distributions for CO(a') and CO(d) are, in part, inverted, presumably as a consequence of a change in CO equilibrium bond length during recombination. The observations are compatible with current knowledge of the potential surfaces of states of HCO and HCO(+).

Laboratory measurements of the recombination of PAH ions with electrons: implications for the PAH charge state in interstellar clouds

Laboratory measurements of the recombination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) ions with electrons are presented. Experimental data have been obtained at room temperature for azulene (C10H8) and acenaphthene (C12H10) cations by the Flowing Afterglow with PhotoIons method. The results confirm that the recombination of PAH ions is fast although well below the geometrical limit. The set of our recent and present measurements reveal a definite trend of increasing rate with the number of carbon atoms of the PAH. This behaviour that needs further characterization is potentially of great interest for charge state models as recombination is a dominant mechanism of PAH ion destruction in the interstellar medium. The design of experiments to measure the recombination of larger PAHs and their temperature dependence is discussed.

Calculating molecular Rydberg states using the one-particle Green's function: application to HCO and C(NH2)3

A simple but accurate and computationally efficient method for routine ab initio calculations of molecular Rydberg states is described. The method, which can be applied to Rydberg states associated with a nondegenerate ion core, consists in the self-consistent solution of an effective one-electron problem. First, the restricted Hartree-Fock problem of the ion core is solved. The orbital energies and certain two-electron Coulomb matrix elements with respect to the molecular orbital basis are then used to construct an energy-dependent many-body correction to the Hartree-Fock mean field. This correction is derived from the Dyson equation satisfied by the one-particle Green's function. The method is applied to calculate Rydberg potential-energy curves of HCO. The presented data confirm and extend recent large-scale multireference configuration-interaction calculations and help develop a detailed theoretical description of the astrophysically important dissociative recombination of a low-energy electron with HCO(+). As further illustration of the utility of the method, the first ab initio calculations of the excited states of an electron bound to the guanidinium cation [C(NH(2))(3)](+) are reported.

Recombination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon photoions with electrons in a flowing afterglow plasma

A new technique, flowing afterglow with photoions (FIAPI), has been developed to measure the rate coefficient for the recombination of complex ions, and, in particular, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) cations with electrons. The method is based on the flowing afterglow Langmuir probe - mass spectrometer apparatus at the University of Rennes I. A helium plasma is generated by a microwave discharge in a He buffer gas and downstream, a small amount of argon gas is injected to destroy any helium metastables. A very small amount of neutral PAH molecules is added to the afterglow plasma by evaporation from a plate coated with the PAH to be studied. PAH ions are then produced by photoionization of the parent molecule using a pulsed UV laser (157 nm). The laser beam is oriented along the flow tube and so a constant spatial concentration of photoions is obtained. The electron concentration along the flow tube is measured by means of a movable Langmuir probe. Ion concentration decay in time is measured at a fixed position using a quadrupole mass spectrometer which is triggered by the laser pulse. The recombination of anthracene and pyrene cations has been studied using this technique and we have found a recombination rate of (2.4 +/- 0.8) x 10(-6) cm(3) s(-1) for anthracene and (4.1 +/- 1.2) x 10(-6) cm(3) s(-1) for pyrene.

Mechanisms of Electron-Ion Recombination of N2H+/N2D+ and HCO+/DCO+ Ions: Temperature Dependence and Isotopic Effect

The temperature dependencies of the rate coefficients, alpha(e), for electron-ion dissociative recombination (DR) of N2H+/N2D+ and HCO+/DCO+ ions with electrons have been measured over the range 100-500 K. Also, optical emissions have been detected at approximately 100 K from the N2(B3(pi)g) electronically excited products of N2H+/N2D+ recombination. The measurements were carried out using the classic FALP technique combined with an optical monochromator. For N2H+, there was no variation of alpha(e) with temperature above 200 K, with an average value of alpha(e)(N2H+) = 2.8 x 10(-7) cm3 s(-1). The temperature variation for T approximately 100-300 K observed for alpha(e)(HCO+) is similar to that of N2H+ ions for T approximately 300-500 K. The smaller rate coefficient measured for DCO+ and N2D+ ions shows the influence of an isotope effect. The substantial enhancement of the vibrational level, upsilon' = 6, from the N2B state for N2H+ recombination over N2D+ recombination is consistent with previous result at 300 K and implies the influence of a tunneling mechanism of DR.