Fragmentation of doubly charged ammonia cations NH 3 ++ studied by the photoion-photoion coincidence (PIPICO) method

Doubly charged NH ₃ ⁺⁺ cations were produced by double photoionization of neutral ammonia molecules by using the synchrotron radiation from ACO as a photon source of variable energy in the 35–49 eV energy range. The fragmentation of NH ₃ ⁺⁺ was studied by the photoion-photoion coincidence (PIPICO) method. NH ₃ ⁺⁺ cations were produced in the \(\tilde X^1 \) A ₁ and \(\tilde B^1 \) electronic states of which the onset energies were measured at, respectively, 35.4±0.5 eV and 44.5±0.5 eV. It was shown that the NH ₃ ⁺⁺ ions, initially produced in their \(\tilde X^1 \) A ₁ state, rapidly dissociate (in less than 50 ns), into NH ₂ ⁺ + H⁺. Furthermore, the comparison with results obtained by other methods indicates that NH ₃ ⁺⁺ ions can either be long-lived (τ>10 µs) or slowly dissociating (1 µs<τ<10 µs) or rapidly dissociating (τ<50 ns), depending on their geometry and/or internal energy in their \(\tilde X^1 \) E A ₁ electronic state.