pulsed YAG laser is used to produce atomic metal cations inside the ICR cell. Reactions of
these ions with neutral gases are investigated by conventional ICR tech-niques. 3 When Fe+
is generated in the presence of N20, first-order decay of the Fe+ signal is observed with a
corresponding increase of the FeO+ signal. The observed half-time indicates a rate constant
of k= 0.7 X 10" 10 cm3 molecule" 1 s" 1 for reaction