A new crossed molecular beam apparatus with a high-resolution ion imaging detector is described. Two pulsed supersonic molecular beams are crossed at right angles in a vacuum of 10−7 Torr. The collision region is irradiated with a tunable laser pulse that ionizes the scattered particles state selectively. The generated ions are accelerated by stacked electrodes in a two-dimensional (2D) space focusing mode that increases the velocity resolution of the apparatus. A cylindrical hexapole deflector is placed in the middle of the time-of-flight mass spectrometer to compensate the center-of-mass velocity of the ions and to direct them to the center of the 2D imaging detector. Real-time image processing of the charge coupled device camera signal eliminates blurring of the image detector. The performance of the apparatus was examined by observing the inelastic scattering of NO+Ar at a collision energy of 66 meV. The observed multiple rainbow peaks clearly demonstrate the high performance of the apparatus.

Differential cross sections have been measured by scattering He atoms from CFnCl4-n (1≤n≤4) in crossed molecular beams. The damping of the diffraction oscillations was used to extract interaction potentials for these molecules which range from nearly isotropic to rather anisotropic. Macroscopic binary parameters, as second virial coefficients, diffusion coefficients and viscosities were calculated from these potentials

Scattering of helium atoms by cyclopentane, pyrrolidine and tetrahydrofurane molecules was ob-served in crossed molecular beam experiments. The intensity of scattered helium atoms, depending on the scattering angle, was measured with high resolution, and the damping of the diffraction oscillations of the differential cross sections was used to extract elastic anisotropic interaction potentials for these molecules. The evaluation included a geometric transformation concerning the puckered states of the envelope and the twisted conformation of the molecules. The potentials were found to be rather similar.

Differential cross section measurements are reported for scattering of an improved He-atomic beam by crossed beams of Pyrrole, Furane and Thiophene. The damping of the DCS diffraction oscillations is used to extract reliable anisotropic intermolecular potentials, applying the infinite order sudden approximation (IOSA).