Fragmentation dynamics of CO(2)(3+) investigated by multiple electron capture in collisions with slow highly charged ions.
Fragmentation of highly charged molecular ions or clusters consisting of more than two atoms can proceed in a one step synchronous manner where all bonds break simultaneously or sequentially by emitting one ion after the other. We separated these decay channels for the fragmentation of CO(2)(3+) ions by measuring the momenta of the ionic fragments. We show that the total energy deposited in the molecular ion is a control parameter which switches between three distinct fragmentation pathways: the sequential fragmentation in which the emission of an O(+) ion leaves a rotating CO(2+) ion behind that fragments after a time delay, the Coulomb explosion and an in-between fragmentation--the asynchronous dissociation. These mechanisms are directly distinguishable in Dalitz plots and Newton diagrams of the fragment momenta. The CO(2)(3+) ions are produced by multiple electron capture in collisions with 3.2 keV/u Ar(8+) ions.
Neumann
N
N
Institut für Kernphysik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Max-von-Laue-Str.1, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany.
Hant
D
D
Schmidt
L Ph H
LP
Titze
J
J
Jahnke
T
T
Czasch
A
A
Schöffler
M S
MS
Kreidi
K
K
Jagutzki
O
O
Schmidt-Böcking
H
H
Dörner
R
R