Single- and double-electron transfer reactions of ground and metastable state Ar2+ions

Electron transfer cross sections have been measured for reactions of Ar 2+ ions with Ar, N 2 , O 2 , CO 2 , CH 4 and C 2 H 6 . Time-of-flight techniques have been used to measure both fast neutral Ar 0 and fast Ar + products from single- and double-electron transfer processes involving Ar 2+ ions with 4.0 to 7.0 keV impact energies. Incident Ar 2+ ions have produced by controlled electron impact ionisation of argon atoms. Reactions have been examined as a function of ionising electron energy and cross sections determined for ground state Ar 2+ ( 3 P) ions. Charge transfer cross sections have been determined to be in the range of 3*10 -16 cm 2 for the systems examined. Double-electron transfer cross sections are the same order of magnitude as those measured for the corresponding single-electron transfer reactions. The state distribution of the reactant ion beam has been estimated and electron transfer cross sections obtained for single- and double-electron transfer reactions of metastable Ar 2+ ions. The magnitudes of electron transfer cross sections in individual systems are similar for both ground and metastable state Ar 2+ reactions.