Fragmentation of doubly charged HDO, H{sub 2}O, and D{sub 2}O molecules induced by proton and monocharged fluorine beam impact at 3 keV
Doubly charged ions HDO{sup 2+}, H{sub 2}O{sup 2+}, and D{sub 2}O{sup 2+} were prepared selectively to triplet or singlet excited states in collisions with F{sup +} or H{sup +} projectiles at 3 keV. Excitation energies of dications following two-body or three-body dissociation channels were measured and compared with recent calculations using ab initio multi-reference configuration interaction method [Gervais et al., J. Chem. Phys. 131, 024302 (2009)]. For HDO{sup 2+}, preferential cleavage of O–H rather than O–D bond has been observed and the ratio between the populations of the fragmentation channels OD{sup +}-H{sup +} and OH{sup +}-D{sup +} were measured. The kinetic energy release has been measured and compared with previous experiments.