COLLISION-INDUCED DISSOCIATION OF ORIENTED CO- PROBING POTENTIAL-ENERGY CURVES BY ION COLLISION SPECTROMETRY( IONS )

Translational energy spectra of C+ and O+ fragments produced in the co llision-induced dissociation of ground state CO+ ions have Yielded kin etic energy release distribution functions. These are compared with th eoretical simulations that have been carried out by reflecting the pro bability distribution of the zeroth vibrational state of the 2SIGMA st ate onto various low-lying excited state potential energy curves of th e CO+ molecular ion which have been computed using contemporary ab ini tio molecular orbital techniques.