Experimental confirmation of the Jahnndash;Teller distortion of CH4+thinsp;

摘要

We report measured energy and angular distributions for H+and Cn+(n=2,3,4) fragments resulting from the collisional dissociation of 194 keV/amu Chn+(n=0ndash;4) in thin carbon foils. From the systematic trends of these rsquo;rsquo;Coulomb explosionrsquo;rsquo; spectra, one can obtain qualitative information on the structures of these species. In particular, the series displays a narrowing of the carbon angular and energy widths as protons are symmetrically added around a central carbon atom and provide a rsquo;rsquo;focusingrsquo;rsquo; effect. Because of the Jahnndash;Teller distortion, the widths measured for CH4+are dramatically increased. (AIP)