Excitation functions of cation formation in collisions of diatomic molecules with an ionic bond: CsCl + RbI

Abstract

The excitation functions for the formation of cations Cs⁺, Rb⁺, CsRbCl⁺ and CsRbI⁺ in collisions of alkali-metal halide molecules CsCl and RbI have been measured in crossed molecular beams for the collision energy ranging from 3 to 10 eV. Trajectory simulation of dissociative processes in the CsCl + RbI system has been performed on a potential-energy surface chosen to be the sum of six pairwise interaction potentials. The calculated excitation functions agree well with the experimental data. Simulation of the CsCl + RbI reaction by a hard-sphere model has also been carried out.