Decomposition of Alkali Metal Nitrates by Light Ions of Kilovolt Energy

Abstract

WHEN alkali metal nitrates are bombarded by positive ions of energy in the range 1–15 keV a decomposition occurs, the main features of which are represented by the stoichiometric equation: Using a fairly uniform ion beam the yield of nitrite, y, is related to the dose, x, by the equation: where y_s is the saturation yield and depends on the alkali metal and b is a constant. This is shown in Fig. 1 for the nitrates of potassium and rubidium using the narrow beam (½ in. diam.) and may be deduced for the others since the yields produced by a non-uniform beam are a constant fraction of those from potassium nitrate when a similar dose is given, as shown in Table 1. D⁺ ions of 2 keV were used in these experiments and from the initial slopes G(NO₂−) may be calculated as 0.6, 1.8, 2.0, 1.5 and 1.4 for the nitrates of lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium and cæsium. At both high and low temperatures there are observed increases in yield, which follow different types of dependence on dose, as shown in Fig. 2.