Structure of molecules and clusters as determined by Coulomb explosions

A novel method for the study of structure and dynamics of small molecules will be presented. The studied species is accelerated to a speed such that when it collides with an extremely thin foil, a vertical transition occurs to a state of highly charged atomic ions. A pure Coulomb dissociation occurs among the positive ions. The final vector velocity of each fragment is recorded simultaneously for all the constituents and the joint velocity vectors of the ions can be converted back to the original positions of atoms in the studied species. The ensemble of such measurements provides the correlated density function of all the position degrees of freedom within the studied molecule. This may open up a new perspective on the science of physical chemistry of small molecules, molecular ions and clusters. A specific example, the fluctuational behavior of the CH4+ ion as seen from the Coulomb-Explosion results, will be given. A major improvement of the Coulomb explosion method is the inclusion of a careful selection of the quantum state(s) of the measured species. An account of the state of the art of such improvements will be included