Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.110, No.18, 9064-9070, 1999
Nascent rovibrational distribution of NO+(A(1)Pi) produced from charge-transfer reaction of He-2(+) with NO at thermal energy
The NO+(A (1)Pi-X (1)Sigma(+)) emission resulting from the He-2(+)/NO charge-transfer reaction at thermal energy has been observed in a He flowing afterglow. The vibrational and rotational distributions of NO+ (A) were determined from a spectral simulation. The average vibrational and rotational energies deposited into NO+ (A) were determined to be 0.22 +/-0.02 and 0.10 +/- 0.1 eV, respectively. The vibrational population of NO+ (A) decreases rapidly for upsilon' = 0-2 and becomes flat for upsilon' = 3,4, indicating that the vibrational distribution is bimodal. The bimodal vibrational distribution was explained as due to either two different entrance channels or two different dynamics (Demkov or Landau-Zener type). The rotational distributions were expressed by single Boltzmann temperatures of 1170 +/- 100 K.