The dissociative recombination of vibrationally excited N₂⁺ ions

The dissociative recombination coefficient is measured for the first time as a function of the internal vibrational quantum number, v′, of the ground state. In this plasma‐spectroscopy experiment, laser‐induced photofluorescence techniques are used to study the behavior of ions in specifically identified vibrational and rotational quantum states. The specific dissociative recombination coefficients for the v′=0, 1, and 2 vibrational levels of the state are found to be nearly equal in magnitude. The variation of the total dissociative recombination coefficient with electron and vibrational temperature is given by the expression