Fragmentation of H-2(2+) ions following double electron capture in slow Xe23+ and O5++H-2 collisions

The energy distributions of H+ fragments produced in 345 keV Xe23++ H-2 and 75 keV O5+ + H-2 collisions have been investigated experimentally as a func tion of the detection angle. For both systems. the experiment shows strong deviations from the molecular Coulomb explosion. Two- and three-body model calculations have also been performed to understand the energy spectra. In the collisions involving the heaviest projectile Xe23+, the two-body calcul ations reproduce the experimental data satisfactorily, indicating that the recoil energy transferred to the target plays an important role in the frag ment-energy distributions. On the other hand, for the system O5+ + H-2, the deviations between calculations and experiment suggest that the interactio n between the outgoing projectile and each fragment plays the major role.