Molecular-ion structures determined from Coulomb explosions of penetrating ions

Traditional experimental techniques (e.g. studies on photon absorption or emission) for determining the stereochemical structures of neutral molecules are extremely difficult to apply to molecular ions because of problems in obtaining a sufficient spatial density of the ions to be studied. Recent high-resolution measurements on the energy and angle distributions of the fragments produced when fast (MeV) molecular-ion beams from an electrostatic accelerator dissociate in thin foils and in gases, offer promising possibilities for deducing the stereochemical structures of the molecular ions constituting the incident beams. The authors describe this ''Coulomb explosion'' technique and give some examples of its use in structure determinations. (Auth.)