Absolute total cross section measurements of the collision-induced dissociation of CO+

Absolute total cross sections for the dissociation of the CO+ beam to C+ and O+ [CO+ + H2 (or N2, SF6) → C+ (or C) + O (or O+)] in the energy range from 1.0 to 9.0 keV were measured. We found values of the order from 10−19 to 10−17 cm2 for the dissociation to channel C+ + O with all targets used herein. While for the dissociation through channel C + O+ the absolute total cross section show overall decreases of at least one order of magnitude. The measurements reported here are not found in the literature and the increasing availability of the data on these systems may stimulate work in this direction.