The Effect of Clustering on the Measurement of the Mobility of Potassium Ions in Nitrogen Gas

Abstract

McDaniel and Martin (1971) have suggested that the zero-field reduced mobility of (unclustered) K+ ions in nitrogen at room temperature and low pressures (~ 0·1 torr) is accurately enough known to be useful in pressure calibration of drift tubes and other types of apparatus employed in atomic collision experiments, where the uncertainty in the value of the gas pressure frequently represents the largest source of error in the measurements. Elford (1971) has questioned the validity of this suggestion on the grounds that he has observed a very slight, explicit dependence of the reduced mobility of K+ ions on the gas pressure in drift tube experiments with nitrogen and other gases. Although this pressure effect cannot be reconciled with existing mobility theory (McDaniel and Mason 1972), Elford believes the effect to be real and hence maintains that in fact the true mobility of unclustered K+ ions in nitrogen is not accurately known. The purpose of this communication is to point out that Elford's experiments with nitrogen were conducted at pressures sufficiently high that significant clustering of nitrogen molecules with his K+ ions inevitably occurred and that consequently the suggestion of McDaniel and Martin (1971) is not weakened by his findings.