Correlation between multiple ionization and fragmentation of C{2}H{6} in charge-changing collisions with 580−keVC[+]

Abstract

We investigate correlations between multiple ionization and fragmentation processes of the ethane molecule in collisions with 580−keVC[+] ions under single-electron capture and loss conditions. Employing an electron counting technique, we directly obtain number distributions of ionized electrons, which correspond to distributions of multiple ionization probabilities of ethane. In addition, fragmentation patterns as a function of the charge state r of intermediate parent ions C{2}H{6}[r+*] are obtained from coincidence measurements between the time of flight of the product ions and the number of electrons emitted. Fragmentation patterns in the different charge-changing conditions reveal a crucial role of the internal excitation in the fragmentation processes. Also, we provide clear evidence of strong selectivity on the parent charge state for formation of the H{3}[+] ion, which is exclusively generated through doubly charged parent ions C{2}H{6}[2+*].