Mobilities and reactions of diatomic rare-gas ions in their parent gases, helium, neon, argon and krypton

The mobilities of He2+, Ne2+, Ar2+ and Kr2+ have been measured in their parent gases as a function of E/N at 293K (for He), 77K (for Ne and Ar) and 295K (for Kr). Mobility data are also presented for Ne3+ in Ne, Ar+ in Ne and Ar, and Ar3+ in Ar; in each of these cases the gas is at 77K. The reduced zero-field mobilities were obtained by extrapolation for all these ions and are compared with previous measurements where they are available. The clustering reaction for the formation of Ar3+ has been investigated and it is demonstrated that the dissociation energy for Ar3+ is greater than that for He3+. The magnitudes of the mobilities of the diatomic inert-gas ions in their parent gases and the variation of the mobility with E/N are discussed.