Orientation dependence of N-2 and O-2 multiple ionization in slow and fast collisions with highly charged Xe-ions

Abstract The influence of the molecular orientation on the multiple ionization of N 2 and O 2 was studied in collisions with highly charged Xe-ions at velocities of 0.2–0.3 and ≈15 a.u. The applied technique is based on a position- and time-sensitive multi-particle detector which allows to determine the ionization cross-section as a function of the orientation of the molecular axis. At lower collision energies, e.g. in collisions with 360 keV Xe 18+ , no anisotropy was found, whereas in collisions with 770 MeV Xe 18+ significant orientation effects appear at higher degrees of ionization.