Absolute cross sections for electron impact ionization, dissociative excitation (DE) and dissociative ionization of N + 2 ions are measured in the energy range from threshold to 2500 eV. The animated crossed electron-ion beam method has been employed. The individual contributions of ionization products (N 2+2 ) and dissociation fragments (N + ), which have both identical mass-to-charge ratio and average velocity, are deduced from the analysis of product velocity distributions. Particular attention was paid to determining the transmission efficiency for dissociation fragments, since their collection was incomplete during the measurements. Threshold energies and kinetic energy released to dissociation fragments are measured. The role of states contributing to different reactions is discussed. For DE, the present results are found to be much smaller than the results of Peterson et al (1998). For ionization (single and dissociative), a satisfactory agreement with their result is obtained as well as with the prediction of Kim et al (2000) obtained in the binary-encounter Bethe approximation.

Absolute cross sections for electron impact ionization and dissociation of CO2+ to form C+ and O+ fragments are measured in the energy range from threshold to 2500 eV. The animated crossed-beams method has been employed. The ionization cross section shows a maximum of 4.79×10-17 cm2 at 130 eV and the corresponding threshold is found in good agreement with previous measurements. Both dissociation cross sections are shown to exhibit wide plateaux which are of the same order of magnitude. In addition, these cross sections almost coincide above 100 eV. The threshold energy and kinetic energy released are determined for both the production of C+ and O+. They are found in good agreement with the previously published data obtained in electron impact ionization experiments of neutral CO2.

Applying the animated beam method the total cross sections (TCS) for double ionization (DI) of helium by electrons are measured in the collision energy region from threshold to 3 keV. The TCS for the same process are calculated at intermediate and high incident energies in the first Born approximation (FBA). The radial and angular correlations between the bound electrons and repulsion between the ejected electrons are accounted. In order to go beyond the FBA the scattered electron is considered as a particle being in the Coulomb field of the nucleus, the charge of which is screened by the ejected electrons. On the basis of the obtained results some conclusions concerning the behaviour of the TCS in the intermediate and high-energy regions are drawn.

First absolute cross sections for electron impact single ionization of H3O+, HD2O+ and D3O+ and for dissociative excitation (DE) producing H+ and D+ are reported. The animated crossed electron-ion beam method has been employed in the energy range from threshold to 2500 eV. The maxima of these cross sections are found to be unusually small (<1×10-17 cm2). The ionization threshold energies are determined to be 24.7±0.5, 24.4±0.5 and 24.0±0.5 eV for H3O+, HD2O+ and D3O+, respectively. The observed DE threshold energies lie in the range 10-12.5 eV and the maximum kinetic energies released are between 3 and 4 eV. Significant differences are observed between the results obtained for the three isotopomers.