Absolute differential and total cross sections for N+ formation from the interaction of N-2(+) with He and Ar

Differential and total cross sections for the production of N+ fragment formed by the collision of N-2(+) on He and Ar, at projectile energies between 1.0 and 5.0 keV and for scattering angles from -4 degrees to 4 degrees are reported. The replotting of the angular distributions in terms of the scaled variable V-0 theta(2) as a function of (1/V-0)(d sigma/d Omega), indicates the same scaling law is followed in all the study. The reduced differential cross sections show an overall increase of at least one order of magnitude and a monotonic decreasing behavior at all the collision energies studied in this work. The cross sections for the N-2(+)-He system are found to be in the range of 0.85-1.60 angstrom(2), while for the N-2(+)-Ar system are between 2.40 and 3.90 angstrom(2). Both measured total cross sections for N+ formation display a slowly increasing behavior as a function of the incident energy. The absolute cross sections for DE (sigma(DE)) and DI (sigma(DI)) were estimated. Both cross sections for the He and Ar targets show the same behavior, with those for the Ar target slightly higher than those for the He target, while the DE process for both targets is a factor of 1.86 higher than that for DI. The measurements reported here are not found in the literature and the increasing availability of the data on these systems may stimulate work in this direction. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved