2007-05-092007-05-091984HIGGS, CHARLES. "THE KINEMATICS OF RYDBERG ATOM - SULFUR HEXAFLUORIDE COLLISIONS." (1984) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/15827">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/15827</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/15827Negative ions formed in the reaction A** + BC (--->) A('+) + BC('-) where A** is a highly-excited Rydberg atom and BC is an electron-attaching molecule exhibit very long lifetimes against autodetachment. This has led to speculation that these negative ions may be stabilized by a post-attachment interaction with the Rydberg atom ion core. In such a stabilization process the Rydberg ion core would carry away some of the vibrational energy of the negative ion. To investigate this possibility the kinematics of Xe(nf) - SF(,6) collisions have been studied and the data compared to the results of a Monte Carlo calculation. These comparisons indicate that few electron transfer reactions lead to significant energy transfer to the Rydberg ion core, implying that the observed long lifetime of the SF(,6)('-) ion is a consequence of the very low initial translational energy of the Rydberg electron, rather than a post-attachment interaction.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.Molecular physicsThesisThesis Phys. 1984 Higgs