Regular Article

Electron-impact dissociation of N₂D⁺ cations to D⁺ fragments

¹ University of Belgrade, Faculty of Physics, P.O. Box 386, Belgrade 11000, Serbia
² University of Belgrade, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, P.O. Box 47, Belgrade 11158, Serbia
³ Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah-Fès, Faculté des Sciences Dhar El Mahraz, B.P. 1796, Fès-Atlas 30003, Morocco
⁴ Université Catholique de Louvain, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences, Chemin du Cyclotron 2, Louvain-la-Neuve B-1348, Belgium

^a e-mail: xavier.urbain@uclouvain.be

Received: 9 December 2019
Received in final form: 23 February 2020
Published online: 21 May 2020

Abstract

Absolute cross sections for electron-impact dissociation of N₂D⁺ cations to the light D⁺ fragments are reported for the first time. The animated electron-ion crossed-beam method is applied in the energy range from thresholds up to 2 keV. The heavy N₂⁺ fragments are also detected and their kinetic energy distribution is analyzed at a selected electron energy. The measured cross-sections are corrected for incomplete collection of the light D⁺ fragments by performing careful analyser magnetic field scan together with a Monte-Carlo procedure. Inclusive absolute cross sections are determined. Dissociative excitation (DE) and dissociative ionization (DI) contributions are separated and the corresponding partial cross sections for D⁺ fragment production are determined at selected electron energies. The inclusive cross section for D⁺ fragment production has a maximum of (87 ± 7)×10⁻¹⁸ cm², at 95.1 eV, with the dominant contribution from the DI process.