The cross section as well as the branching ratios for the dissociative recombination of ground-state CH ϩ ions with electrons have been measured using the heavy-ion storage-ring technique and two-dimensional fragment imaging. Although the absolute value of the cross section at thermal energies is found to be in very good agreement with the theory, several unpredicted narrow resonances are also present in the data. These structures are interpreted as due to an indirect recombination process via core-excited Rydberg states. The branching-ratio measurement shows that at low electron energy the 2 2 ⌸ state, producing carbon fragments C͑ 1 D͒, is the most important dissociative state, although transitions during the dissociation to other dissociative potential curves are also present. Anisotropy in the angular distribution of the dissociating fragments is visible for some of the final states. Dissociative recombination of ions in the metastable excited a 3 ⌸ state is also observed, and the lifetime as well as the excitation energy of this state are deduced from the imaging data.

A technique for storage of fast-ion beams ͑keV͒ using only electrostatic fields is presented. The fast-ion trap is designed like an optical resonator, whose electrode configuration allows for a very large field-free region, easy access into the trap by various probes, a simple ion loading technique, and a broad acceptance range for the initial kinetic energies of the ions. Such a fast-ion storage device opens up many experimental possibilities, a few of which are presented. ͓S1050-2947͑97͒50803-1͔

The energy-resolved rate coefficient for the dissociative recombination (DR) of H(3)(+) with slow electrons has been measured by the storage-ring method using an ion beam produced from a radiofrequency multipole ion trap, employing buffer-gas cooling at 13 K. The electron energy spread of the merged-beams measurement is reduced to 500 microeV by using a cryogenic GaAs photocathode. This and a previous cold- measurement jointly confirm the capability of ion storage rings, with suitable ion sources, to store and investigate H(3)(+) in the two lowest, (J,G) = (1,1) and (1,0) rotational states prevailing also in cold interstellar matter. The use of para-H(2) in the ion source, expected to enhance para-H(3)(+) in the stored ion beam, is found to increase the DR rate coefficient at meV electron energies.

Isomerization of a highly excited vibrational state of acetylene was studied using the Coulomb explosion imaging technique. A vinylidene isomer was prepared by electron photodetachment of the negative molecular ion and the corresponding distribution function of the nuclear configurations of the molecule was sampled after a time period of 3.5 ms. The population of the vinylidene isomer was found to be significantly high (ϳ50%), in contrast to the commonly accepted notion of vinylidene as a short-lived isomer. [S0031-9007(98)07417-1]