The research capabilities of this group will be expanded by constructing and testing apparatus which, in conjunction with existing equipment, will allow the simultaneous measurement of the charge state of a target recoil ion, the velocity distribution of one or more free electrons, the projectile charge state and its energy loss in a fast ion atom collision. Such a collision will be (nearly) completely characterized by measuring the energy loss and charge state of a projectile ion, which has produced a high electron moving with near zero velocity in the projectile rest frame. In addition, the formation of three body final states just above the dissociation limit will be explored under various collision conditions by detecting two electrons moving near zero velocity in the projectile rest frame. The outcome of these experiments will determine if experiments exploring threshold laws in fast ion atom collisions are feasible. This work will help elucidate basic phenomena in atomic collisions.
