Probing isotope effects in chemical reactions using single ions
Atomic Physics
2008-08-05 v1 Chemical Physics
Abstract
Isotope effects in reactions between Mg+ in the 3p 2P3/2 excited state and molecular hydrogen at thermal energies are studied through single reaction events. From only ~250 reactions with HD, the branching ratio between formation of MgD+ and MgH+ is found to be larger than 5. From additional 65 reactions with H2 and D2 we find that the overall decay probability of the intermediate MgH2+, MgHD+ or MgD2+ complexes is the same. Our study shows that few single ion reactions can provide quantitative information on ion-neutral reactions. Hence, the method is well-suited for reaction studies involving rare species, e.g., rare isotopes or short-lived unstable elements.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0802.2797,
title = {Probing isotope effects in chemical reactions using single ions},
author = {Peter F. Staanum and Klaus Hoejbjerre and Roland Wester and Michael Drewsen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0802.2797},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted for publication