Volume 217, 2019

Towards state selective recombination of H3+ under astrophysically relevant conditions

Abstract

We present studies on the thermalisation of H3+ ions in a cold He/Ar/H2 plasma at temperatures 30–70 K. We show that we are able to generate a rotationally thermalised H3+ ensemble with a population of rotational and nuclear spin states corresponding to a particular ion translational temperature. By varying the para-H2 fraction used in the experiment we are able to produce para-H3+ ions with fractional populations higher than those corresponding to thermodynamic values. At 35 K, only the lowest rotational states of para and ortho H3+ are populated. This is the first step towards experimental studies of electron–molecular ion recombination processes with precisely specified quantum states at astrophysically relevant temperatures.

Graphical abstract: Towards state selective recombination of H3+ under astrophysically relevant conditions

Associated articles

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 nov 2018
Accepted
17 jan 2019
First published
17 jan 2019

Faraday Discuss., 2019,217, 220-234

Towards state selective recombination of H3+ under astrophysically relevant conditions

P. Dohnal, D. Shapko, Á. Kálosi, M. Kassayová, Š. Roučka, S. Rednyk, R. Plašil, M. Hejduk and J. Glosík, Faraday Discuss., 2019, 217, 220 DOI: 10.1039/C8FD00214B

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