Three-body fragmentation dynamics of CF₄²⁺ induced by 1 keV electron collision

We report the investigation on three-body fragmentation of CF₄²⁺ induced by 1 keV electron collision utilizing a newly built ion momentum spectrometer. With the help of coincidence measurement, more than seven dissociation channels are observed. For the fragmentation of CF₄²⁺ into F⁺+CF²⁺+F, three dissociation pathways are identified, including one sequential and two concerted pathways. Kinetic energy release distributions for these pathways are deduced. We found that one concerted pathway is the predominated, and the sequential breakup is likely to take place through highly-excited electronic states of CF₄²⁺. (author)