Ionization and multifragmentation of C60 by high-energy, highly charged Xe ions.
Ionization and multifragmentation have been observed in C[sub 60] molecules bombarded by Xe[sup 35+] and Xe[sup 18+] ions with energies in the range 420--625 MeV. The c.m. energies exceeded those used in previous studies by several orders of magnitude. We present the observed mass distribution of positively charged fragments together with a theoretical model indicating that the total interaction cross section contains roughly equal contributions from (a) excitation of the giant plasmon resonance, and (b) large-energy-transfer processes that lead to multiple fragmentation of the molecule.