Effects of interchannel coupling in associative detachment: electron spectra for H+Cl- and H+Br- collisions

We present experimental and theoretical energy spectra of the electrons detached in collisions of slow Cl- and Br- ions with atomic hydrogen. Nonlocal resonance theory predicts two kinds of features in the spectra: steplike structures associated with rovibrational onsets and steep rises associated with interchannel coupling, the latter being absent in a calculation using the simpler local-complex potential theory. Our experimental spectra confirm the presence of both types of structures and thus the necessity of including interchannel coupling to properly describe the product-state distribution.