Crossed Molecular Beam Study of H+CH₄ and H+CD₄ Reactions: Vibrationally Excited CH₃/CD₃ Product Channels

We study the H+CH₄/CD₄→H₂/HD+CH₃/CD₃ reactions using the time sliced velocity map ion imaging technique. Ion images of the CH₃/CD₃ products were measured by the (2+1) resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) detection method. Besides the CH₃/CD₃ products in the ground state, ion images of the vibrationally excited CH₃/CD₃ products were also observed at two collision energies of 0.72 and 1.06 eV. It is shown that the angular distribution of the products CH₃/CD₃ in vibrationally excited states gradually vary from backward scattering to sideways scattering as the collision energy increases. Compared to the CH₃/CD₃ products in the ground state, the CH₃/CD₃ products in vibrationally excited states tend to be more sideways scattered, indicating that larger impact parameters play a more important role in the vibrationally excited product channels.