Abstract
Associative ionizing Na-2(A (1)Sigma(u)(+), upsilon') + Na(3p(3/2)) collisions have been studied in a single supersonic beam with respect to the influence of the initial vibrational excitation of the molecules an the reaction efficiency. An enhancement of trimer ion yield of nearly one order of magnitude has been observed as the vibrational excitation increases from upsilon' = 0 to upsilon' = 14. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.