Three-body effects in the fragmentation of D-2 by slow, highly-charged xenon

Fragmentation of D-2 by slow Xe26+ ions is studied using multi-hit, positio n-sensitive detection of both D+ fragments. By detecting both ion fragments , kinematically complete pictures of the breakup dynamics following double electron removal are obtained. These data are compared to 5-body CTMC calcu lations. For slow collisions, two types of three-body effects are identifie d. The largest is attributed to interactions between the undissociated mole cule and the dipole field of the projectile and is compatible with a two-st ep fragmentation picture. A smaller effect, attributed to quadrupole-like a nd higher multipole interactions between the dissociating fragments and the projectile field is also observed. This "true" 3-body effect, extracts int ernal energy from the exploding molecule and is incompatible with a two-ste p picture.