Electron recombination of rotationally cold D2H+ ions
Dissociative recombination (DR) of electrons with small molecular ions is a fundamental process for the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium and planetary atmospheres. In previous DR studies, detailed analysis of the experimental rate coefficients has been hindered by the difficulty of preparing the ions in well-defined quantum states. For polyatomic ions in particular, truly state-selective measurements have been elusive, allowing only qualitative benchmarks of theory. Here, we present DR studies of the deuterated triatomic hydrogen ion D<sub>2</sub>H<sup>+</sup>, where the molecular ions were stored for up to 1000 seconds inside the Cryogenic Storage Ring (CSR) prior to the DR measurements. Our experiments with rotationally cold D<sub>2</sub>H<sup>+</sup> ions allow for detailed comparison to state-of-the-art theoretical calculations. We obtain very good agreement between experiment and theory even in the important collision energy range from 1 meV to 0.5 eV, where a multitude of Rydberg resonances reveal their imprint on the rate coefficient.
Authors
- Florian Grussie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1553-3622)
- D. W. Savin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1111-6610)
- O. Novotný (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2520-343X)
- D. McK. Paul (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7625-4398)
- Leonard W. Isberner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3571-5765)
- Alexandre Faure (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7199-2535)
- Marco Pezzella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2902-309X)
- Jonathan Tennyson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4994-5238)
- Chris H. Greene (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2096-6385)
- Ábel Kálosi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3782-0814)
- Aigars Znotins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2225-6819)
- A. Wolf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1198-9013)
- H. Kreckel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0511-0738)
- M. Grieser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5066-2550)
- S. Schippers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6166-7138)
- Viatcheslav Kokoouline (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9945-0858)
- Damian Müll
Institutions
- University of Central Florida (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE)
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- University College London (GB)
- Columbia University (US)
- Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-08-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62734-6
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.23
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Office of Science
- Basic Energy Sciences
- Astrophysics Division