Mechanisms of single-electron capture by the dichlorocarbene dication

The single-electron capture (SEC) by dichlorocarbene dications with eight different atomic and molecular target gases, CCl22+ + G --> CCl2+ + G(+), has been studied by product ion spectroscopy and ion kinetic energy spectroscopy. The experimental data have been interpreted in the framework of a theoretical model that describes the charge exchange process. Exothermic charge exchange is handled within the Landau-Zener model, whereas endothermic charge exchange is described by the Demkov model. The calculated data reproduce qualitatively the essential features of the experimental results: (1) the appearance of a reaction window centered at an exothermicity in the 4-4.5-eV range, (2) the lower SEC cross sections for endothermic charge exchange, (3) the wider internal energy distributions obtained for CCl2+ in the endothermic regime than in the exothermic one, which results in larger dissociation yields, (4) the excitation of molecular targets that accompany their ionization in the SEC process, and (5) the kinetic energy released on the CCl+ + Cl fragments in dissociative SEC.