DISSOCIATIVE RECOMBINATION WITH ION STORAGE RINGS

The development of heavy-ion storage-cooler rings for atomic physics has made it possible to produce high-quality beams of molecular ions that are internally cold. The stored molecular-ion beam is immersed in a cold electron bath, which gives a beam of low divergence and small cross-sectional area. The electron cooler also serves as a target for electron–molecular ion collision experiments. This allows the study of dissociative recombination of cold molecules with respect to cross sections, branching ratios, and angular distibutions at an unprecedented luminosity.