Ion-molecule reactions and vibrational deactivation of H2/+/ ions in mixtures of hydrogen and helium

Use of ion cyclotron resonance methods to measure the thermal energy rate constants for a number of ion-molecule reactions involving hydrogen and hydrogen-helium mixtures. Assuming that the distribution of initial vibrational states in the H2(+) ion is a near-Franck-Condon distribution, the occurrence of collisional deactivation of vibrationally excited H2(+) ions by He atoms is identified, and an approximate rate constant for the deactivation process and its dependence on vibrational energy are given.