Kinetic energy release distributions and evaporation energies for metastable fullerene ions

Kinetic energy release distributions for spontaneous (metastable) decay of singly, doubly and triply charged fullerene ions have been measured for C60z+ and C58z+. The data are analyzed in terms of generalized Maxwell distributions. Based on recently measured values of the Gspann parameter γ, energies for evaporation of C2 are derived. An average evaporation energy Ea=11.6 eV is obtained for γ=37.6; Ea=10.1 eV is obtained for γ=33. No significant dependence of Ea on the size or charge state of the ions is observed within the experimental error of about −11% to +5%.