Experimental evidence for the metastability of neon hydride

The neutralization-reionization mass spectrum of NeD⁺ has been obtained using K as a neutralization target and NO₂ as a collisional reionization target. The appearance of the parent NeD⁺ peak in the mass spectrum unambiguously indicates that the neutral radical survived the transit time (≈ 0.5 μs) from the point of neutralization to that of reionization. Arguments, based on energetic considerations, are presented that the observed metastability arises from the existence of a shallow well and dissociation barrier in the ground state of the radical analogous to those which have previously been determined for the ground states of the isoelectronic NH₄, H₃O, and H₂F radicals.