Endoergic chemi-ionization in N-O collisions

A semiclassical theory of endoergic chemi-ionization is developed and applied to the ionizing events that occur when ground state oxygen atoms collide with nitrogen atoms in the ground and first excited states. The approach used is an adaptation and extension of earlier theories due to Bardsley, Nakamura, and Miller. The theory relates the experimental associative (AI) and Penning ionization (PI) cross sections to the following events: formation of a stable diatomic ion (AI), neutral and ionized atomic fragments (PI), or of a metastable diatomic rotational resonance (DI, delayed ionization). The heavy particle motions are treated classically in terms of adiabatic potential energy functions, while localized nonadiabatic transitions also are taken into account by using the Landau-Zener approximation. Finally, the theoretical predictions compare well with the results of Ringer and Gentry's (1978) merged beam experiments