Ion imaging study of dissociative charge transfer in the N2(+) + CH4 system

The velocity map ion imaging method is applied to the dissociative charge transfer reactions of N2(+) with CH4 studied in crossed beams. The velocity space images are collected at four collision energies between 0.5 and 1.5 eV, providing both product kinetic energy and angular distributions for the reaction products CH3(+) and CH2(+). The general shapes of the images are consistent with long range electron transfer from CH4 to N2(+) preceding dissociation, and product kinetic energy distributions are consistent with energy resonance in the initial electron transfer step. The branching ratio for CH3(+):CH2(+) is 85:15 over the full collision energy range, consistent with literature reports.