MEAN LIFETIMES AND KINETIC ENERGY RELEASED UPON DISSOCIATION
OF 3He4He2+ AND 12C16O2+ MOLECULAR IONS

I. Ben-Itzhak*, Z. Chen*, C.D. Lin*, J.P. Bouhnik#, I. Gertner#, B. 
Rosner#,
Z. Amitay?, O. Heber?, and D. Zajfman?

*J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Physics Department, Kansas State University, 
Manhattan, KS 66506 USA
#Department of Physics, Technion, Haifa, 32000, Israel
?Department of Particle Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 
76100, Israel

We present measurements of the mean lifetime and the kinetic energy 
released upon dissociation of 3He4He2+ and CO2+. The simultaneous 
measurement was accomplished by three-dimensional imaging of the 
dissociating fragments about 1 ms after their formation in fast charge 
stripping collisions.  Calculations of tunneling rates and rovibrational 
energies of the electronic ground state of 3He4He2+ were conducted using 
the phase shift method. The measured values for this molecular ion are in 
agreement with the calculated values for the n=1 and l=15 state.