Electronic states of B$sup +$ produced by electron bombardment of boron trihalides: some ion-molecule reactions of B$sup +$

Beam attenuation studies of B/sup +/ as a function of attenuating gas pressure shows that the beam has a composition of 35% /sup 3/P and 65% /sup 1/S when produced by 70 eV electrons from BF/sub 3/. As one proceeds in the series from BF/sub 3/ to BI/sub 3/, the amount of excited state varies in a regular manner and B/sup +/ ions are completely in the ground state when BI/sub 3/ is used as a target. The composition of the beam could also be varied by varying the electron energy. The results of the attenuation studies were also confirmed by studying the cross section vs. beam energy curves for the B/sup +/ (/sup 1/S) and B/sup +/ (/sup 3/P) reactions with N/sub 2/O. (auth