Electronic excitation in collisions of fast protons and hydrogen atoms with NO, N2O, CO2, and OCS

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Abstract
Analyses of radiation in the 115–850 nm range produced by collisions of 10–25 keV H+ and H with NO, N2O, CO2, and OCS under thin target conditions have been carried out. In agreement with our earlier observations for CO2, the most prominent features for the polyatomic targets are emitted by excited parent molecule ions. Except in the case of OCS, for which weak CO+ (B 2Σ+–X 2Σ+) bands were detected, the cross sections for dissociative excitation to yield diatomic fragments are extremely small. These observations in conjunction with results obtained elsewhere for other projectile ions provide further evidence that in the competition among allowed excitation channels, details of the electronic structure of the collision partners override energy considerations. For an NO target, the NO+ (A 1Π–X 1Σ+) bands are observed, and, for all of the molecules studied, atomic lines owing to dissociative excitation are prominent in the spectra.