Fragmentation of charged fullerene dimers: Kinetic energy release

We have performed an experimental study of highly charged clusters of fullerenes produced in slow collisions with highly charged ions. Collision products are analysed with respect to their mass to charge ratio and their initial kinectic energy by a linear time-of-flight mass spectrometer. An event-by-event data registration mode allows to study the correlation between the different detected fragments. In this paper, we focus on the kinetic energy releases (KER) in the fragmentation of charged dimers of fullerenes. The results are compared with theoretical values obtained from the conducting sphere model.