Collision induced dissociation is applied to study the fragmentation channe
ls of multiply charged gold clusters, Au-N(2+), size N = 7-35, and Au-N(3+)
, N = 19-35, stored in an ion cyclotron resonance (Penning) trap. The main
dissociation pathways are neutral monomer evaporation, Au-N(Z+) --> Au-N-1(
Z+) Au, for the larger and fission into a charged trimer plus the remaining
cluster, Au-N(Z+) --> Au-N-3((N-1)+) + Au-3(+), for the smaller clusters.
In the intermediate cluster size region an odd-even alternation of the two
competing decay pathways is observed. In addition, for some specific cluste
r sizes there are indications of neutral dimer evaporation, Au-N(Z+) --> Au
-N-2(Z+) + Au-2, and of extremely asymmetric fission of the form Au-N(Z+) -
->Au-N-1((Z-1)+) + Au+.