Vibrational effects in Na2( , v′)+Na(3p3/2) associative ionization

Abstract Associative ionizing Na2( A 1 Σ + u , v′)+Na(3p3/2) collisions have been studied in a single supersonic beam with respect to the influence of the initial vibrational excitation of the molecules on the reaction efficiency. An enhancement of trimer ion yield of nearly one order of magnitude has been observed as the vibrational excitation increases from v′=0 to v′=14.