Auger electron-ion coincidence experiment on nitric oxide molecule excited by electron impact

The fragmentation of nitric oxide by electron impact is studied via Auger electron-ion coincidence experiments. The kinetic energy releases of the different fragments have been measured in the 39-70 eV binding energy region of the dication. The experimental data confirm that the three lower lying states of NO 2+ are bound states, while all the other states in the studied region are repulsive ones. Experimental evidence is provided that all the repulsive states up to 54 eV binding energy dissociate to the lowest dissociation limit and that dissociative channels leading to the formation of N 2+ and O 2+ are populated at 62 eV binding energy. The experimental results are compared with previous experimental data obtained with different techniques and with the more recent theoretical predictions.