DISSOCIATIVE ELECTRON CAPTURE IN SLOW ARQ+/SF6 (Q = 6-11) COLLISIONS

In collisions with Arq+ ions (q = 6-11) at 3-10 q keV we produced SFn+,2+ molecular ions, n = 1-5. Since even the singly charged SF6+ ion is unstable all collisions lead to dissociation with a large number of dissociation channels. We observed an alternating structure in the mass spectra of the singly and doubly charged molecular ions SFn+ and SFn2+. The cations SFn+ are more stable for an odd number of fluorine atoms (n = 3,5) and the dications SFn2+ are more stable if the number of F atoms is even (n = 2,4).