Experimental evidence for the metastability of neon hydride

✍ Scribed by Susan F. Selgren; Gregory I. Gellene

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 250 KB
• Volume: 141
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2614
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2614(87)85070-4

✦ Synopsis

The neutralization-reionization mass spectrum of NeD+ has been obtained using K as a neutralization target and NO, as a collisional reionization target. The appearance of the parent NeD+ peak in the mass spectrum unambiguously indicates that the neutral radical survived the transit time ( zz 0.5 ps) from the point of neutralization to that of reionization. Arguments, based on energetic considerations, are presented that the observed metastability arises from the existence of a shallow well and dissociation barrier in the ground state of the radical analogous to those which have previously been determined for the ground states of the isoelectronic NH4, H30, and HIF radicals.