Three-body association reactions of He+, Ne+, and Ar+ ions in their parent gases from 78 to 300 K

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Abstract
Three‐body association coefficients for the conversion of atomic He+, Ne+, and Ar+ ions to molecular ions have been determined using drift‐tube mass‐spectrometer techniques at gas temperatures from 78 to 300 K. The 300 K results for the conversion of He+ to He2+ agree well with those obtained by other investigators using various techniques; however at 78 K, our results disagree strongly with one of the previous determinations. In the cases of conversion of Ne+ to Ne2+ and Ar+ to Ar2+, the rate coefficients differ substantially for ground state ions in their 2P3/2 and 2P1/2 fine structure states; also, the temperature dependence of this effect is distinctly different for the two gases. It does not appear that available theories give an adequately quantitative description of these association processes.

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