The dynamics of fullerene multifragmentation

The molecular dynamics statistical trajectory ensemble (MDSTE) method has been employed to study the fragmentation of fullerenes in a cross-beam collision experiment. Differential fragmentation cross-sections and double differential cross-sections of the final time step of the large scale molecular dynamics statistical trajectory ensemble simulation with improved statistics is presented. The envelope of the cross-sections of the small collision fragments (Fullerene multifragmentation: J. Schulte (N ⩽ 28)) follow a scaling law with σ(C_N) ≈ N^−λ, with λ = 1.54. An odd-even alteration with enhanced even number size fragments (N ⩽ 12) is found with a change of the alteration sequence starting at N = 15. The small and large fragments of the fullerene collisions are carbon chains and intertwined carbon chains with vibrational excitations close to that of an ideal cluster gas where about 50% of the collision momentum is transferred to internal vibrational energy, and a strong correlation of fragment mean coordination number and their respective excitation has been found.