Speaker
Description
Fullerenes are the largest molecules identified thus far in the interstellar medium and have been the focus on countless studies since their discovery nearly four decades ago. [1] They do, however, still hold many secrets. At DESIREE [2], the Double ElectroStatic Ion Ring ExpEriment, a national infrastructure for ion physics research located at Stockholm University, we have recently performed a number of different studies of the properties of these molecular systems. In my talk I will give an overview of the DESIREE facility and recent results on fullerene ions. These include experiments where the stability of fullerene ions damaged by energetic collisions with atomic systems are studied on timescales ranging from microseconds to minutes; the hitherto most accurate measurements of the electron affinity of C$_{60}$, settling a dispute between past measurements; and the first ever studies on mutual neutralization between fullerene cations and anions at interaction energies approaching 0 eV.
References
[1] H. W. Kroto et al., Nature 318, 162 (1985)
[2] H. T. Schmidt et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 055115 (2013)
