Near-Coulombic behavior in the dissociative ionization of CO 2 due to impact by Ar 8+

The Coulomb explosion of CO2 in collisions with Ar8+ ions of 120 keV has been examined experimentally using a position sensitive detector with a triple coincidence technique. The technique has allowed the full characterization of the structure of the exploding molecule. Purely Coulombic fragment energies fit the experimental results well, across the range of fragment energies. Modifications to the molecular geometry are observed, in the form of widening of the zero point bend distribution and sequential processes are found to be unimportant in the dissociation process.