Metastable fragment production by electron-impact dissociation of SO2

Abstract

Time-of-flight detection of neutral metastable fragments has been applied to the study of electron-impact dissociation of SO2 molecules. The time-of-flight distributions indicate that a variety of processes are involved in the production of metastable fragments with a wide range of energies. Rydberg S and O atoms and SO molecules have been identified. Data for these processes have been measured up to 300 eV. The results presented are compared with other studies of fragmentation of SO2.