Charge transfer of krypton ions with methane molecules from thermal energy to 10 eV Original Research Article

Total integral cross sections and product branching ratios for the reaction of krypton ions with methane molecules are reported. Experimental data have been obtained through the use of both crossed molecular beams and beam-cell techniques over a wide energy range (2 × 10−2−10 eV). Thresholds for the appearance of CH2+ product have been measured and found close to the expected thermodynamic values. A model for the description of the quasi-resonant charge-transfer process, which mainly dominates the collisional dynamics, is presented. This model accounts adequately for the observed ∼E−13 energy dependence of the total cross section and also reproduces to a good approximation the size of the total cross section.