Luminescence Measurements of Xe+ + N2 and Xe2+ + N2 Hyperthermal Charge Transfer Collisions (Postprint)

Abstract : Luminescence spectra are recorded for collisions between Xe+/Xe2+ and molecular nitrogen at energies ranging from 4.5 to 316 eV in the center-of-mass frame. In the Xe+ + N2 collision system, evidence for luminescent charge-transfer products is only found through Xe I emission lines. The most intense features of the luminescence spectra are attributed to atomic N emissions observed above 20 eV. Intense N2+ A 2(Pi)u - X 2(Sigma)g+ and B 2(Sigma)u+ - X 2(Sigma)g+ radiance is observed from Xe2+ + N2 collisions. The B state formation cross section decreases with collision energy until 20 eV, after which it becomes independent of impact energy with an approximate value of 3 sq Angstrom. The cross section for N2+ A (v 0) formation increases with energy until 20 eV, after which it remains nearly constant at 1 sq Angstrom. The N2+ product vibrational distributions extracted from the spectra are non-Franck-Condon for both electronic product states at low collision energies. The distributions resemble a Franck-Condon distribution at the highest energies investigated in this work