Dynamics of three-body breakup in dissociative recombination: H2O+

To better understand the propensity for the three-body breakup in dissociative recombination (DR) of dihydrides (H₃⁺, NH₂⁺, CH₂⁺, and H₂O⁺), we undertook a study of the dynamics of this process. A study of DR of H₂O⁺ to give O + H + H was carried out at the CRYRING Heavy-Ion Storage Ring in Stockholm. With the stored beam energy of 4.5 MeV, we separated the O signal from the H signals with a differential absorber, thus reducing the problem to a sum of two two-body problems. Results included (1) the ratio of O(³P) to O(¹D) product, (2) the distribution of recoil-kinetic energy between the two hydrogen atoms, (3) the angular distribution between the hydrogen atoms in the O(³P) channel and in the O(¹D) channel.