Mutual Neutralization of NO^{+} with O^{-}

Phys Rev Lett. 2024 Jan 12;132(2):023001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.023001.

Abstract

We have studied the mutual neutralization reaction of vibronically cold NO^{+} with O^{-} at a collision energy of ≈0.1 eV and under single-collision conditions. The reaction is completely dominated by production of three ground-state atomic fragments. We employ product-momentum analysis in the framework of a simple model, which assumes the anion acts only as an electron donor and the product neutral molecule acts as a free rotor, to conclude that the process occurs in a two-step mechanism via an intermediate Rydberg state of NO which subsequently fragments.