LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE MEASUREMENTS OF THE X2-SIGMA+ STATE OF CN PRODUCED BY ELECTRON-IMPACT ON CH3CN

Laser induced fluorescence (LIF) measurements of CN production following electron impact on CH3CN are carried out over an energy range from 30 to 300 eV. Cross sections for production of CN (X, upsilon approximately-equal-to 0) over this range are obtained using the cross section for production of N2+ (X, upsilon = 0) as standard. The CN fragments are determined to be rotationally "cold" suggesting that dissociation occurs by stretching of the C-C bond. Rotational "temperatures" increased by a factor of 2 (to 80 K) as the incident electron energy was increased from 30 to 300 eV. LIF measurements of the translational energies of the CN fragments revealed a group with a surprisingly low translational temperature of 130 K.