Event-by-Event Analysis of Collision-Induced Cluster-Ion Fragmentation: Sequential Monomer Evaporation versus Fission Reactions

Abstract

The most abundant decay channels have been studied quantitatively for high-energy $(60\mathrm{keV}/\mathrm{amu})$ cluster ions $\mathrm{H}{}_{3}{}^{+}(\mathrm{H}{}_{2}{)}_{m\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1--14}$ colliding with He atoms employing a recently developed multicoincidence technique for the simultaneous detection of the correlated fragments on an event-by-event basis. This allows us to identify decay reactions and their underlying decay mechanisms responsible for the occurrence of the U-shaped fragmentation pattern.