Observation of molecular fusion and deep inelastic scattering inC60++C60collisions

Direct experimental evidence is obtained for the occurrence of fusion in collisions between two ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ molecules at collision energies of 200 to 500 eV in the center-of-mass frame of reference. The ${\mathrm{C}}_{120}^{+}$ 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.