  The dissociative recombination of the lowest rotational states of H3+ has
been investigated at the storage ring TSR using a cryogenic 22-pole
radiofrequency ion trap as injector. The H3+ was cooled with buffer gas at ~15
K to the lowest rotational levels, (J,G)=(1,0) and (1,1), which belong to the
ortho and para proton-spin symmetry, respectively. The rate coefficients and
dissociation dynamics of H3+(J,G) populations produced with normal- and para-H2
were measured and compared to the rate and dynamics of a hot H3+ beam from a
Penning source. The production of cold H3+ rotational populations was
separately studied by rovibrational laser spectroscopy using chemical probing
with argon around 55 K. First results indicate a ~20% relative increase of the
para contribution when using para-H2 as parent gas. The H3+ rate coefficient
observed for the para-H2 source gas, however, is quite similar to the H3+ rate
for the normal-H2 source gas. The recombination dynamics confirm that for both
source gases, only small populations of rotationally excited levels are
present. The distribution of 3-body fragmentation geometries displays a broad
part of various triangular shapes with an enhancement of ~12% for events with
symmetric near-linear configurations. No large dependences on internal state or
collision energy are found.

Atomic Physics;Chemical Physics