The dissociative recombination of the helium molecular ion the observed final products

• Main Author: Coman, Luminita
• Format: Others
• Published: FIU Digital Commons 2000
• Subjects: Physics
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2412; http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3598&context=etd

Dissociative recombination reaction has been studied theoretically and experimentally for about four decades. Because of the complexity of this process there is not yet a definite agreement between theory and experiment. In this work, dissociative recombination (DR) of helium molecular ion in thermal plasma was studied using Time of Flight (TOF) spectroscopy. This method allowed the identification of the final atom states products of DR. We found the following final products of the DR of the molecular ion: He(3S; 1s3s), He(1S; 1s3s), He(3P; 1s3p), He(3D; 1s3d), He(1D; 1s3d), He(1P; 1s3p), He(3S; 1s2s), He(1S; 1s2s) and possibly He(1S; 1s2). Results similar to ours were obtained in experiments done using optical methods. The actual theoretical models predicts only n=2 manifold states. Further theoretical modeling for this complex process is required.