Mobility and dissociation of electronically excited Kr2+ ions in cold krypton plasma

• Published in: Plasma sources science & technology 2019-09, Vol.28 (9)
• Main Authors: van de Steen, Cyril, Benhenni, Malika, Kalus, René, Ćosić, Rajko, Gadéa, Florent X., Yousfi, Mohammed
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences; or physical chemistry; Theoretical and
• ISSN: 0963-0252; 1361-6595
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6595/ab3a17

Collisions of electronically excited krypton dimers with krypton atoms are studied using a hybrid (quantum-classical) dynamical method, semi-empirical diatomics-in-molecules electronic Hamiltonian, and Monte Carlo modeling. Krypton dimer mobility in krypton gas and dimer disappearance rate constants have been calculated for a broad range of the reduced electric field and five lowest excited electronic states of the dimer ion. Comparison with calculations recently reported for the electronic ground-state krypton dimer ion and with available experimental data is also provided. Two groups of the electronic states of the krypton dimer ion, resulting from a spin-orbit induced splitting, have been analyzed separately. Importantly, for both groups of states, the theoretical results bracket the experimental ones, therefore, considering mixtures of electronically excited states may strongly improve the agreement between theory and experiment. In addition, the effect of rotational-vibrational excitations in electronically excited krypton dimer ions is assessed and shown to also lead to an improved agreement between theory and experiment.