The first CO⁺ image: I. Probing the HI/H₂ layer around the ultracompact HII region Mon R2

The CO⁺ reactive ion is thought to be a tracer of the boundary between a HII region and the hot molecular gas. In this study, we present the spatial distribution of the CO⁺ rotational emission toward the Mon R2 star-forming region. The CO⁺ emission presents a clumpy ring-like morphology, arising from a narrow dense layer around the HII region. We compare the CO⁺ distribution with other species present in photon-dominated regions (PDR), such as [CII] 158 µm, H₂ S(3) rotational line at 9.3 µm, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and HCO⁺. We find that the CO⁺ emission is spatially coincident with the PAHs and [CII] emission. This confirms that the CO⁺ emission arises from a narrow dense layer of the HI/H₂ interface. We have determined the CO⁺ fractional abundance, relative to C⁺ toward three positions. The abundances range from 0.1 to 1.9 ×10^-10 and are in good agreement with previous chemical model, which predicts that the production of CO⁺ in PDRs only occurs in dense regions with high UV fields. The CO⁺ linewidth is larger than those found in molecular gas tracers, and their central velocity are blue-shifted with respect to the molecular gas velocity. We interpret this as a hint that the CO⁺ is probing photo-evaporating clump surfaces.