Dissociative Charge Transfer in He+–O2 and He+–N2 Collisions

Abstract

The cross sections for charge transfer between He⁺ ions and molecules of nitrogen and oxygen have been determined within the energy range 100–7700 eV. A mass spectrometer was used to analyze the secondary ions, and the dissociative and nondissociative charge‐transfer cross sections were separately determined. The observations show that in both reactions the major contribution to the total charge‐transfer cross section comes from collisions involving dissociation.