Electron diffraction of trapped cluster ions

A deeper understanding of the physics and chemistry of clusters has been constrained by the inability to observe experimentally the structure and structural variations for size selected clusters. We report here measurements of trapped ion electron diffraction, a technique that presents the possibility to directly observe the evolution of cluster structure with size and temperature. The results of electron diffraction from ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}^{+}$ ions stored in a radio-frequency Paul trap are reported.