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The OI(¹S) state: Its quenching by O 2 and formation by the dissociative recombination of vibrationally excited O 2 + ions
Author(s) -
Zipf Edward C.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl006i011p00881
Subject(s) - excited state , dissociative recombination , ion , metastability , atomic physics , recombination , quenching (fluorescence) , arrhenius equation , kinetic isotope effect , physics , chemistry , fluorescence , kinetics , deuterium , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , gene
The rate coefficient for the quenching of metastable O(¹S) atoms by O 2 has been measured as a function of temperature from 250°K to 550°K. The resulting Arrhenius expressionk 1 = 4.9 × 10 −12 exp[‐(885 ± 35)/T]is in good agreement with previous laboratory work. It is suggested that the much larger value for k 1 inferred from an analysis of the artificial auroral experimentPrecedeis due to overestimating the contribution to O(¹S) production from O 2 + dissociative recombination. The possibility that O(¹S) atoms are produced only by the dissociative recombination of vibrationally excited O 2 + ions is discussed; such excited ions would not exist at the altitude of the Precede experiment because of the rapid cooling of these ions by resonant charge transfer processes.