Velocity map imaging of ion-molecule reactive scattering: the Ar(+)+ N(2) charge transfer reaction

We present a velocity map imaging spectrometer for the study of crossed-beam reactive collisions between ions and neutrals at (sub-)electronvolt collision energies. The charge transfer reaction of Ar(+) with N(2) is studied at 0.6, 0.8 and 2.5 eV relative collision energies. Energy and angular distributions are measured for the reaction product N. The differential cross section, as analyzed with a Monte Carlo reconstruction algorithm, shows significant large angle scattering for lower collision energies in qualitative agreement with previous experiments. Significant vibrational excitation of N(+)(2) is also observed. This theoretically still unexplained feature indicates the presence of a low energy scattering resonance.