Time-sliced ion-velocity imaging study of the reaction Y + O2 → YO + O

The oxidation reaction dynamics of the gas-phase yttrium atoms by oxygen molecules was studied under crossed-beam conditions. The product YO was detected using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer combined with laser single-photon ionization. An acceleration lens system designed for the ion-velocity mapping conditions, a two-dimensional (2-D) detector, and a time-slicing technique were used to obtain the velocity and angular distributions of the products. Two ionization wavelengths were used for the internal (vibrational and/or electronic) energy selective detection of YO. The single photon of the shorter wavelength (202.0 nm) can ionize all states of YO(X (2)Σ, A' (2)Δ, and A (2)Π), while electronically excited YO(A' and A) are dominantly ionized at a longer wavelength (285.0 nm). Time-sliced images were converted to the velocity and angular distributions in the center-of-mass frame. The general features of the velocity distributions of YO, determined at two wavelengths, were well represented by those expected from the statistical energy disposal model. The forward-backward symmetry was also observed for two images. These results suggest that the reaction proceeds via long-lived intermediates, and that this mechanism is consistent with previous chemiluminescence/LIF studies.