Breakup dynamics in the dissociative recombination of H₃⁺ and its isotopomers

The dynamics of the fragmentation process following the recombination with low energetic free electrons was studied for H₃⁺ and D₃⁺ using a two-dimensional imaging technique. The kinematical correlation of the atomic fragments in the three-body fragmentation channel, as well as the vibrational excitation distribution of the molecular fragments in the two-body channel, could be determined. In addition, a considerable rotational excitation of the H₃⁺ and D₃⁺ ions circulating in the storage ring TSR was observed even after storage time of more than 1min. In contrast, the heteronuclear D₂H⁺ isotopomer possessing an electric dipole moment does not exhibit any internal excitations after 10s of storage.