Collisional electron detachment and decomposition cross sections for SF−6, SF−5, and F− on SF6 and rare gas targets

Absolute total cross sections for collisional electron detachment and collision‐induced dissociation (CID) have been measured for binary collisions of SF−6 and SF−5 with rare gas and SF6 targets for laboratory collision energies ranging from about 10 up to 500 eV. The cross sections for electron detachment of SF−6 are found to be surprisingly small, especially for the SF6 target, for relative collision energies below several tens of electron volts. Specifically, detachment onsets are found to occur at around 30 and 90 eV for the rare gas and SF6 targets, respectively. The CID channel which leads to F− as a product is observed to dominate detachment for relative collision energies below 100 eV. The results for the SF−5 projectile are remarkably similar to those exhibited for SF−6. The role of long‐lived excited states in the reactant SF6 ion beam is discussed.