Effect of Metastable O+(2D) on Reactions of O+ with Nitrogen Molecules

Laboratory measurements indicate that the metastable ions of O+ in reaction with N2 in the low-energy range (14 eV) react to form principally N2+, while the ion—molecule reaction to form NO+ has a very small probability. The ground-state O+ ion reacts mainly to form NO+. The abundance of metastable O+ 2D ions was determined using the observation that O+(2D)+N2 has a small cross section for forming NO+. The ion energy dependence for both reactions has been measured within the energy range 1.0–500 eV.