Dissociative recombination of NO⁺

Cross sections for dissociative recombination and dissociative excitation of NO⁺ in the vibrational ground state have been measured at a heavy-ion storage ring. Branching ratios for dissociative recombination into different electronic states of the atomic fragments have also been determined by an imaging technique. More than 80% of the dissociative recombination events at E = 0 eV produced N(²D) + O(³P). The rotational temperature of the NO⁺ ion beam was changed by a factor of 2 by employing different types of ion sources. The branching ratios and the dissociative recombination cross section as a function of energy were independent of the rotational temperature. The dissociative recombination cross section was proportional to E^-1 at low energies and had peaks in the energy regions 3–8 eV and 10–16 eV. We obtain a total dissociative recombination rate α  =  4×10^-7 cm³/s at T=300 K for NO⁺ in the vibrational ground state.