Dissociative recombination of CH5+and CD5+: Measurement of the product branching fractions and the absolute cross sections, and the breakup dynamics in theCH3+H+Hproduct channel

The dissociative recombination (DR) of CH{sub 5}{sup +} and CD{sub 5}{sup +} has been studied at the heavy-ion storage ring CRYRING. The fragmentation dynamics of the dominant reaction channel CH{sub 3}+H+H has been investigated using an imaging detector. The results indicate that a two-step process via the production of a CH{sub 4} intermediate, which has sufficient energy to fragment further to CH{sub 3}+H, may play an important role. Discrepancies between the present and earlier results obtained from storage ring measurements with those from flowing afterglow experiments are addressed. Newly measured branching fractions in the DR of CD{sub 5}{sup +} show an excellent agreement with branching fractions previously measured for CH{sub 5}{sup +}, and the absolute DR cross sections have been also measured over an interaction energy range between {approx}0 and 0.1 eV for both isotopologs.