Studies of Multiply Charged Molecules by Ion Collision Techniques and Ab Initio Theoretical Methods

Abstract

Experimental developments over the last two to three decades have made feasible detailed studies on the structure and spectroscopy of singly charged molecular ions, and a substantial body of information now exists on positively charged diatomic and polyatomic molecules covering the spectral region from the microwave to the infrared (see [8.1], and references therein). However, despite the fact that multiply charged molecular ions were first observed in a mass spectrometer as long ago as 1932 [8.2], there continues to be an acute paucity of experimental and theoretical information on such species. Even in the case of relatively simple species, such as doubly charged diatomic ions (like CO²⁺) and highly symmetrical polyatomic ions (like $\mathop {\text{CH}}\nolimits_4^{2 + }$), the information that does exist can, in the main, be considered to be somewhat ambiguous.