Dissociative ionization of ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ produced by 1-MeV ${\mathrm{H}}^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$: Time-energy spectroscopy

By measuring the energy and time of flight of fragment ions from molecular breakup, the fragments can be separated according to their mass to charge ratios and the kinetic-energy spectra for each recorded. This technique is applied to the dissociative ionization of ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ caused by 1-MeV ${\mathrm{H}}^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$ projectiles. The energy spectra for ${\mathrm{N}}^{+}$ is not unlike that produced by electron bombardment, but the ${\mathrm{N}}^{++}$ spectra show some high-energy structure that has not been previously observed. An ${\mathrm{N}}^{3+}$ spectrum is obtained with a maximum near 25 eV, and the reflection method is used to obtain a potential curve for a presumed ${\mathrm{N}}_2^{3+}$ state.