Collisions of doubly charged nitrogen molecules with rare gas atoms

The authors report on single electron capture in slow collisions of doubly charged nitrogen molecules with the rare gases He, Ne and Ar. The vertical double ionization energy of N2 as well as vertical excitation energies of N22+ have been calculated by means of the multiconfiguration coupled electron pair approximation (MC-CEPA) method. Furthermore, experiments have been carried out applying the technique of translational energy spectroscopy. The energy gain spectra of the resulting N2+ molecules have been analysed, showing the single electron capture to be dominated by N22+ (X 1 Sigma +g) projectile ions, as well as by N22+ ions in the low-lying metastable c 3 Sigma +u state. The position of the experimentally observed reaction window is discussed in terms of Franck-Condon transitions and is compared with predictions of classical descriptions.