Measurement of the Branching Ratio for the Dissociative Recombination ofH3++e

Abstract

The dissociative recombination of ${\mathrm{H}}_3^{+}$ with electrons can have two exit channels, namely $e$+ ${\mathrm{H}}_3^{+}$→H + H + H (channel I), and $e$+ ${\mathrm{H}}_3^{+}$→${\mathrm{H}}_2$ + H (channel II). A new technique has been developed which has been used to determine the relative contributions of channels I and II to the overall recombination process. Over the energy range from 0.01 to 0.05 eV it has been found that channel I dominates.