Observation of molecular fusion and deep inelastic scattering in C60++C60 collisions

Direct experimental evidence is obtained for the occurrence of fusion in collisions between two C60 molecules at collision energies of 200 to 500 eV in the center-of-mass frame of reference. The C120+ formed at 200 and 250 eV collision energy has a lifetime of more than 70 μs with high internal energy. Results are in good qualitative agreement with recent molecular dynamics simulations combined with density functional theory.