Zero-field mobilities in helium: highly accurate values for use in ion mobility spectrometry

The zero-field mobilities of 46 atomic ions in helium are calculated as functions of the gas temperature in an ion mobility spectrometer. The calculations are based on highly accurate, ab initio potential energy curves obtained in the last few years. In general, they start from a small value at low temperature, rise steadily to a maximum at some specific temperature, T-max, and then decline at higher temperatures. The ratio of T-max to the dissociation energy (well depth) of the ion-neutral interaction potential is shown to be approximation the same for all singly-charged ions and a few multiply-charged ions.