Interaction of excited He and Ne rare gas metastable atoms with the CHF₂Cl molecule

Abstract

We studied the Penning ionization of the CHF2Cl molecule with He and Ne metastable atoms (He* and Ne*). We measured the electron kinetic energy and the time-of-flight mass spectra; we also determined the branching ratio for the parent ion and charged CHF+2, CHFCl+, HCF+/CF+ and Cl+ fragments. These data led us to discuss the dissociation channels for all the energetically-accessible electronic states of the ionized molecule. We evidenced a marked contrast in the fragment ion proportions for Ne*–CHF2Cl and He*–CHF2Cl systems, and related it to the difference in polarizability and internal energy of the He* and Ne* atoms.